Morristown, Tennessee Karst Groundwater Dye Tracing, Water Year 2023

Karst hydrologic systems are important resources in the state of Tennessee both as drinking water resources and as centers for possible biological diversity. These systems are susceptible to contamination due to the inherent connectivity between surface water and groundwater systems in karst systems. A partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Tennessee Department of Conservation (TDEC) was formed to investigate karst spring systems across the state utilizing fluorescent groundwater tracing, particularly in areas where these resources may be used as drinking water sources. In fall 2021, USGS and TDEC staff identified possible vulnerabilities or complexities that may exist within karst spring systems based upon maturity of karst development, underlying geology, and uncertainties related to estimated recharge areas. Based upon initial research, several study areas were selected.  Dye tracing efforts began in March 2022 in the communities of Woodbury, Cowan, Jasper, and Vanleer.  In Water Year 2023 (10/1/2022-9/30/2023) fieldwork concluded on these initial communities and new dye tracing efforts were started in Caryville, Morristown, and Lafayette.  Collectively these communities span multiple physiographic regions including the western and eastern Cumberland Plateau escarpments, the Western and Eastern Highland Rim, and the Valley and Ridge Province.  All these communities rely on karst groundwater as a drinking water source and in areas where the hydrology has been significantly altered by karst processes and thus the groundwater pathways are complex and unpredictable. 
The community of Morristown is located in Hamblen County, Tennessee.  The Morristown area is in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province and the area straddle a watershed divide between Cherokee Lake, to the north, and the Nolichucky River to the south.  The town is underlain by Cambrian and Ordovician strata, the vast majority of which are carbonate units of dolomite or limestone.  The geology of the area is complicated by faults which extend through the area NE-SW in parallel faults and have created anticlinal and synclinal structures in the underlying strata.  The areas underlain by carbonate strata have been heavily altered by karst processes resulting in a landscape where most surface water sinks underground, either directly into sinkholes or in sinking streams.  From March 2023 through July 2023, a total of six dye injections were conducted in two rounds. The monitoring network consisted of 34 monitoring sites where charcoal packets were deployed.
This data release contains shapefiles that relate to dye injection locations, monitoring sites, and dye traces conducted in the Morristown area during the 2023 Water Year (10/1/2022-9/30/2023).  All files were created in ArcGIS Pro and each shapefile contains associated attributes for the features contained within. Layer files are included with the datasets to match symbology found in figures in the accompanying report. All shapefiles and layers were created and modified in ArcGIS software.  For a full description of the methods to create these files, see Process Steps in "MR23_Metadata.xml" metadata file.
Data within each child item of this data release are named with a two-letter abbreviation unique for the community where the tracing occurred and the water year the work was conducted (e.g. WD23). Abbreviations for the communities are as followed: CR = Caryville, CW = Cowan, JS = Jasper, LF = Lafayette, MR = Morristown, VN = Vanleer, WD = Woodbury.

Tags: caves, dye-tracing, freshwater-ecosystems, groundwater, groundwater-and-surface-water-interaction, groundwater-flow, hamblen-county, havely-springs-branch, hydrogeology, jefferson-city, jefferson-county, karst, karst-areas, karst-hydrology, morristown, mossy-creek, panther-creek, poplar-spring-branch, spring-creek, springs, stubblefield-creek, tennessee, tennessee-department-environment-and-conservation, turkey-creek, usgs-6536cf02d34ee4b6e05bb7f9, valley-and-ridge, williams-branch
Organization: Department of the Interior