Rapid development, population growth, and the changes in land and water use accompanying development are plac- ing increasing stress on water resources in the Taunton River Basin. An assessment by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection determined that a number of tribu- tary streams to the Taunton River are impaired for a variety of beneficial uses because of nutrient enrichment. Most of the impaired reaches are in the Matfield River drainage area in the vicinity of the City of Brockton. In addition to impair- ments of stream reaches in the basin, discharge of nutrient-rich...

Land disposal of treated wastewater from a treatment plant on the Massachusetts Military Reservation in operation from 1936 to 1995 has created a plume of contaminated groundwater that is migrating toward coastal discharge areas in the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. To develop a better understanding of the potential impact of the treated-wastewater plume on coastal discharge areas, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment, evaluated the fate of nitrogen (N) in the plume. Groundwater samples from two large sampling events in...