Hydrogeologic and water-quality data used to evaluate the effects of focused recharge on ground-water quality near Princeton, Minnesota, 1991-95

Abstract

This study was part of the Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) Program, a multi-scale, inter-agency initiative to evaluate the effects of agricultural systems on water quality in the midwest corn belt. The research was part of the U.S. Geological Survey Toxics Substances Hydrology Program. The research area was located in the Anoka Sand Plain about 5 kilometers southwest of Princeton, Minnesota. This report presents temperature, precipitation, soil-moisture, water-quality, and other data collected during 1991-95 to evaluate the effects of focused recharge on ground-water quality at the Princeton MSEA. Introduction The primary objective of this 4-year research study was to evaluate the effects of transient recharge, topography, and subsurface heterogeneities on the flux of water and agricultural chemicals to the water table (Delin and Landon, 1996a). The research was part of the Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) Program, a multi-scale, inter-agency initiative to evaluate the effects of agricultural systems on water quality in the midwest corn belt (Anderson and others, 1991). The research area was at the MSEA which is near Princeton, Minnesota, in the Anoka Sand Plain, an area of glacial outwash covering about 4,400 km2 (fig. 1). The research was conducted primarily by the Minnesota District of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with USGS researchers from Denver and Reston. This report presents data collected during 199195 including temperature, precipitation, wellconstruction, geologic logs, moisture-retention, waterlevel, soil-moisture, water-quality, and other data used to evaluate the primary research objective. Selected graphs are included as examples of the data collected. Location and Description of Research Area The Princeton MSEA was adjacent to a wetland located about 5 km southwest of Princeton, Minnesota and about 80 km northwest of Minneapolis and St. Paul (figs. 1 and 2). Topography is undulating at the 65 ha Princeton MSEA with a maximum elevation gradient of about 2 m over a horizontal distance of about 40 m (Delin and others, 1994). The area is drained primarily by Battle Brook, a tributary of the St. Francis River, which flows into the Mississippi River. Five cropped areas (fig. 2) were established in 1991 to evaluate the effects of selected farming systems on ground-water quality (Anderson and others, 1991). The research summarized in this report was conducted primarily at an upland site (R2) and a lowland site (R1) within the northernmost cropped area (fig. 2), in which corn was grown continuously during the study. The saturated and unsaturated zones at both sites generally contained medium-to-very coarse sand and fine gravel with discontinuous layers of laminations and silty sand up to 20 cm thick (table 1). The upland and lowland sites were about 78 m apart and differed in land-surface elevation by 1.4 m (slope of about 0.02). 1 1 U.S. Geological Survey, Mounds View, Minnesota 2 U.S. Geological Survey, Lakewood Colorado 3 U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 4 Terracon Environmental, White Bear Lake, Minnesota 5 U.S. Geological Survey, Minneapolis, Minnesota