Empirical test of the association between gross contamination of wells with toxic substances and surrounding land use

Abstract

To begin to understand where particular groups of toxics are found in the environment, the 10 groundwater wells most contaminated with light chlorinated hydrocarbons were identified from a 408-well sample in New Jersey. Thirty other wells were selected: ten each with the highest levels of pesticides and heavy metals and, as a control group, a clean group of ten wells with nondetectable or the minimum detectable levels of 45 toxic pollutants. Twenty-one categories of land use drawn from aerial photographic surveys were measured for the 10 mi surrounding each site. The pesticide wells showed a relative excess of mixed and evergreen forests and agricultural land uses within 1 mi of the well sites. The light chlorinated hydrocarbon wells exhibited a surfeit of urban land uses within 1 mi of the well sites. The land-use profiles of the heavy-metal wells were not distinct from the clean group.