KGS Home > News and Announcements
Regional Groundwater Quality Study Released by Kentucky Geological Survey
Lexington, KY. (January 17, 2007) – For the first time, a study of the quality of groundwater in a large region of Kentucky has been completed and made freely available to the public. The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) has published Regional Groundwater Quality in Watersheds of the Upper Cumberland, Lower Cumberland, and Lower Tennessee Rivers, and the Jackson Purchase Region on its web site for viewing and downloading.
“Our evaluations, derived from thousands of well- and spring-water samples taken in the project area as long ago as 1907 and up until the present, determined that the overall water quality is good,” says the study’s chief author Steve Fisher, a KGS geologist. “But there are many wells and springs in the area with levels of contaminants such as pesticides, volatile organic compounds and other health threats that exceed federal recommendations.”
The water analyses used in the study are archived in the Kentucky Groundwater Data Repository, created in 1990 to collect groundwater information gathered by state and federal agencies. KGS manages the Repository.
The regional study focused on “non-point” sources which involve potential contaminants from land-use practices, rather than “point” sources of contaminants such as pipes or underground tanks. It notes that activities in the study area which pose potential threats to groundwater include abandoned or improperly plugged oil and gas wells, active and abandoned coal mines, leaking sewage disposal systems, and agricultural activities.
The study also found that groundwater is particularly vulnerable to non-point-source contamination in the karst regions of the Bluegrass and Pennyroyal Regions because of the well-developed network of sinkholes, caverns, and springs.
“This information is valuable to regional and community planners, environmental quality regulators and ordinary citizens who need to know whether groundwater in a particular area may be threatened by a contaminant,” says KGS geologist Bart Davidson, another author of the report. “Groundwater will always be important to Kentucky due to economic and logistical barriers to changing drinking water sources.”
The Kentucky Division of Water estimates that 1.8 million Kentuckians rely on groundwater from wells or springs for at least part of their drinking water.
The new web publication is the latest result of an on-going effort by KGS researchers to evaluate groundwater quality statewide. They are currently working on regional evaluations for the rest of the state for future publication.
The publication can be seen in its entirety at this KGS web site: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/water/RI_15/
Editors: The Kentucky counties in the watersheds covered by this study include: Adair, Ballard, Bell, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Casey, Christian, Clinton, Crittenden, Cumberland, Fulton, Graves, Harlan, Hickman, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Lincoln, Livingston, Logan, Lyon, Marshall, McCracken, McCreary, Metcalfe, Monroe, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Russell, Simpson, Todd, Trigg, Wayne, and Whitley Counties.