RedN NAWQA
USGS IN YOUR STATE
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Red River of the North Basin
National Water-Quality Assessment Program
Cowdery, T.K., and Saylor, K.N., 1996, Contrasting water quality of two
surficial aquifers in the Red River of the North drainage basin, North Dakota
and Minnesota: North Dakota Water Quality Symposium Proceedings, March 20-21,
1996, Bismarck, North Dakota, North Dakota State University Extension Service,
p. 146, and also in Minnesota Water `96 collection of conference abstracts,
May 20-21, 1996, Minneapolis, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Water
Resources Research Center, p. 98.
Abstract
Irrigated agriculture affects the
quality of shallow ground water differently in two major surficial
aquifers of the Red River of the North Basin: the Otter Tail aquifer
of northwestern Minnesota and the Sheyenne Delta aquifer of southeastern
North Dakota. Samples collected during the summers of 1993 and
1994 from a statistically random set of 29 wells in each aquifer
characterize the shallow ground-water quality in each aquifer.
Most of these wells were installed at the water table for this
study. Ground water from the Otter Tail aquifer had significantly higher
concentrations of nutrients and agricultural herbicides than did ground water
from the Sheyenne Delta aquifer. In the Otter Tail aquifer, 63 percent of the shallow ground water contained
nitrogen from human activities while only 3 percent of shallow ground water from the Sheyenne Delta aquifer contained such nitrogen.
Agricultural herbicides were more often detected and had higher concentrations in ground water from the Otter Tail aquifer. Major
differences in rainfall and minor differences in geology, depth
to ground water, and agricultural practices between the two areas
can account for the differences measured in ground-water quality. These same
factors may identify other surficial aquifers in the basin in which the
ground-water quality has been changed by agricultural land uses.
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey