Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Cyanobacteria, other water-quality, and discharge data collected from the Raritan River Basin, New Jersey, August 2020 through August 2021

Metadata Updated: September 17, 2025

Within New Jersey’s Raritan Basin Water Supply Complex, multiple lakes and reservoirs with persistent and recurrent cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) discharge water which ultimately travels downstream in surface water to drinking-water intakes. Cyanobacteria and other water-quality data were collected as part of a collaborative study among multiple agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New Jersey Water Science Center (NJWSC), New Jersey Water Supply Authority, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Montclair State University to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of cyanotoxin occurrence and potential production, persistence, and transport from lacustrine sources to downstream fluvial systems used as a drinking-water source in the Raritan Basin Water Supply Complex, New Jersey. An advanced monitoring strategy using a combination of solid phase adsorption toxin tracking (SPATT) passive samplers, discrete water-quality samples, and continuous monitoring instrumentation, were used to help gain insight on rapidly changing water-quality conditions that affect cyanotoxin production and transport. Eight discrete sampling locations were chosen based upon existing USGS streamflow-gaging stations as well as one site located on Spruce Run Reservoir. Twenty discrete sampling events were conducted across the 8 river sampling locations and 24 sampling events from the reservoir sampling location from August 2020 through August 2021; events occurred twice per month except from December 2020 to April 2021, when samples were collected once per month. Each sampling event was spread over two days, with upstream sites sampled on the first day and downstream sites sampled on the second day. This sampling method mimicked the natural order of streamflow. To meet study objectives, certain types of data were collected, including streamflow, discrete water quality and turbidity samples, water-quality field measurements (water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and specific conductance), nutrients (ammonia, orthophosphate, nitrate plus nitrite, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen), chlorophyll-a, cyanobacterial genes (cyanobacteria 16S cyanobacterial ribosomal RNA, and cyanotoxin synthetase genes for microcystin, saxitoxin, anatoxin-a, and cylindrospermopsin), cyanotoxins (microcystin, anatoxin-a, and cylindrospermopsin), and phytoplankton.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-659c10aed34e3265ab16274a
Data Last Modified 2025-08-14T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id b5b8754e-cf28-418a-a753-bab624d8da19
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -75.5700, 38.9200, -73.8900, 41.3500
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 3deedd10a100f30f79ea5d0f3ab6d2cc89d18612aecf71e666d039718310ed5c
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -75.5700, 38.9200, -75.5700, 41.3500, -73.8900, 41.3500, -73.8900, 38.9200, -75.5700, 38.9200}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.