Hydrologic assessment of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge

Abstract

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Hydrogeology of, simulation of groundwater flow in, and potential effects of sea-level rise on the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system in the vicinity of Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey

“…For a detailed description of the surficial hydrologic flow system in the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, the reader is referred to Wieben and Chepiga (2018). Groundwater levels in the refuge area range from altitudes of 0 to 65 feet (ft) relative to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88), with most water-table altitudes within 3 ft above sea level.…”

“…If reflection depth is assumed to be about 21 ft BLS, the signal ground velocity would be about 0.262 feet per nanosecond (ft/ns). This value is appropriate for radar velocity through saturated sand (Beres and Haeni, 1991), which is applicable given the shallow water table in this area (Wieben and Chepiga, 2018). The reflection is not evident on GPR line 2 ( fig.…”

“…On the basis of geology of the underlying sediments and the percentage of urban land use in the Metedeconk and Toms River Basins, Nicholson and Watt (1997) (2012) estimated recharge that ranged from 10 to 30 in/yr. Cauller and others (2016) used a modified water-balance method that incorporates the effect of land use by factoring in spatially uniform estimated monthly recharge rates with the spatially variable annual recharge data; Wieben and Chepiga (2018) calculated the mean precipitation in the Forsythe model area from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2015) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for 2004-13 for three weather stations: Atlantic City and Atlantic City International Airport, N.J., in the southern part of the Forsythe model area, and Freehold-Marlboro, N.J., in the northern part ( fig. 1).…”

“…26). Wieben and Chepiga (2018) used hydrograph separation to estimate average base flow from January 2004 to December 2013 at five continuous-record stations (table 6) in the Forsythe model area. Simulated base-flow values were calculated by summing the simulated flow to drain cells (used to represent streams and wetlands adjacent to stream reaches) from each streamflow-gaging station in the model.…”