Water Quality in the Salem Plateau-While not as common as surface water monitoring, water quality tests have been performed throughout the Ozark Aquifer.
Nutrients and Pesticides in wells and groundwater- In 1991-1993 USGS conducted water tests on wells and springs in the Salem and Springfield Plateaus (Adamski, 1997). The test was meant to compare agricultural land uses (chicken and cattle) effects on nutrients and pesticides found in groundwater. Springs were found to be more effected than wells (perhaps just a delay). In the Springfield Plateau there is greater agricultural usage than the Salem Plateau. Background (forest) was low in both nutrients and pesticides were frequently below detection. Nutrients were greater in springs (total nitrogen and orthophosphate) including organic nitrogen in production lands. “Pesticides were found in 80 of 229 samples from 73 of 215 sites” (Adamski, 1997). Five out of eighty pesticides were found most commonly ( including atrazine, metolachlor, alachlor, and prometon most commonly) and greater nutrients also were frequently associated with greater pesticide residues.
Microbiological Contamination of Public Water Supplies-Water from wells is typically free of indicator bacteria (human gut), but the virus content is an unknown. This study also notes that the Ozark Aquifer System is the most frequent water supply in southern Missouri. Out of 109 public wells, 86 showed no indicator bacteria and 9 showed human enteric viral presence in 109 wells. These microbes were not observed in primary or secondary karst landscapes. These results were interpreted to mean that contamination was not wide spread and bacteria are not good indicators of human enteric viruses (USGS and MoDNR, 1997). This was a preliminary round of testing.
Ground-Water Levels in the Ozark Aquifer along the Viburnum Trend, Southeastern Missouri, (2001–05)-Dewatering of mines has created a cone of depression in the St Francois Aquifer. This region is known as the Viburnum Trend and the concern was that the mines caving in and maybe some borehole patches had come loose and that was causing water levels in the overlying layers of the Ozark Aquifer to be dropping. New observation wells were placed into the Ozark Aquifer and observed for 5 years. It was concluded that a drought was causing the falling Ozark Aquifer levels (Kleeschulte, 2006).