Chemical Analyses of Ground and Surface Water From Battle Brook Drainage Basin, Near Princeton, Minnesota

Research on the fate of agricultural chemicals in the Anoka Sand Plain in central Minnesota is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and other federal and state agencies. Most of the research effort is focused on a 160-acre (6.5 x 10^ square meters) Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA). It is hoped that the MSEA results will be applicable to all farms in the sand plain. To test this hypothesis, ground and surface water samples were collected in the entire Battle Brook drainage basin, which includes the test farm. A total of 27 groundwater samples and 29 surface-water samples were collected. This report presents the results of chemical analyses of the samples collected between June 24 and July 8, 1991. The chemical analyses include: field analyses of pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, sulfate, and carbonate; and laboratory analyses for a suite of major and trace cations and anions. On selected water samples and fertilizer samples, the isotopic composition of sulfur in sulfate and nitrogen in nitrate and ammonium were also determined.