During the spring and summer of 2022, the U.S. Geological Survey collected water-quality samples for nutrient analysis at 45 stations across the state of Connecticut and adjacent areas of New York and Rhode Island to better understand the groundwater discharge component of nitrogen loading to the Long Island Sound. The targeted stations were located in small drainage basins (less than 50 square kilometers) in the southern portion of the Long Island Sound watershed. Sites were selected randomly from groups based on expected drivers or controls on baseflow nitrogen loads. Factors used in the grouping included four metrics calculated for the upstream watershed: percent impervious cover, septic system density, percent agricultural or turf grass land cover, and percent coarse-grained stratified sediments.
The water-quality samples and instantaneous discharge measurements were collected under baseflow conditions during two separate synoptic sampling events, one in the nongrowing season (April 2022) and one in the growing season (June and July 2022). Instantaneous discharge measurements were collected in addition to water-quality samples to enable the calculations of nitrogen loads and yields. The water-quality samples were analyzed for physical properties and concentrations of chloride, nutrient species, and dissolved organic carbon; some analyses were performed past analytical method holding times. This data release includes site characteristics and geospatial data for potential and final (selected) sites, as well as field data, analytical results, and calculated nitrogen loads and yields for the final sites. Column names, units and descriptions are provided in data_dictionary.txt and a lookup table for method codes is provided in MethodLookupTable.txt. Note that many station identifiers (site_no) have a leading "0" that should be retained.