PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 127 



New Jersey, with much of its border formed by salt water, 

 has several places where salt water has encroached into well 

 fields and many others where ground-water development pro- 

 ceeds softly for fear of inducing salt-water intrusion. In spite 

 of its small size, the state ranks ninth in the Nation in quantity 

 of water pumped from wells, and it is believed that New Jersey 

 has made a more nearly complete development of its ground- 

 water reservoirs than any other state in the humid regions. 

 This development has caused the water table or artesian pres- 

 sure to decline below sea level in many places. In Newark, 

 where 20 million gallons a day is pumped from wells, water 

 levels in unused wells are as much as 240 feet below sea level, 

 and the salt content has increased in many pumped wells, 

 especially in the vicinities of Newark Bay and the Passaic 

 River. 56 Some industrial wells have been recharged artifi- 

 cially with marked success, using winter surpluses from 

 Newark's municipal surface-water supplies. 57 In Atlantic City 

 pumping from shallow wells has brought in water from nearby 

 salt marshes. At Parlin and Cape May the dredging of ship 

 channels has rendered shallow ground-water reservoirs acces- 

 sible to entry of ocean water, and wells pumping from below 

 sea level have yielded water of increasing salt content. 



In many of the state's ground-water reservoirs no increase 

 in salt water has yet been noted in producing wells, but there 

 is concern lest continued pumping from below sea level may 

 favor such encroachment. This is true of the artesian reser- 

 voirs that provide water to most of the coastal cities, including 

 Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and many others. Several of these 

 cities have piped water from wells several miles inland, where 

 there is less possibility of salt-water intrusion. 



Probably all ground-water reservoirs in New Jersey refuse 



ss Herpers, Henry, and H. C. Barksdale, "Preliminary Report on the 

 Geology and Ground-water Supply of the Newark Area, New Jersey," U.S. 

 Geol. Survey rept., in press. 



57 Erickson, E. T., Using Runoff for Ground Water Recharge, Jour. Am. 

 Water Works Assoc, vol. 41, pp. 647-649, 1948. 



