Hydrogeology of the Beaver Kill Basin in Sullivan, Delaware, and Ulster Counties, New York

The hydrogeology of the 299-square-mile Beaver Kill basin in the southwestern Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York is depicted in a surficial geologic map and five geologic sections, and is summarized through an analysis of low-flow statistics for the Beaver Kill and its major tributary, Willowemoc Creek. Surficial geologic data indicate that the most widespread geologic units within the basin are ablation and lodgment till. Large masses of ablation till as much as 450 feet thick were deposited as lateral embankments within the narrow Beaver Kill and Willowemoc Creek valleys and have displaced the modern stream courses by as much as 1,000 feet from the preglacial bedrock-valley axis.

Low-flow statistics for the Beaver Kill and Willowemoc Creeks indicate that the base flows (discharges that are exceeded 90 percent of the time) of these two streams—0.36 and 0.39 cubic feet per square mile,respectively—are the highest of 13 Catskill Mountain streams studied. High base flows elsewhere in the glaciated northeastern United States are generally associated with large stratified-drift aquifers, however, stratified drift in these two basins accounts for only about 5 percent and 4.4 percent of their respective surface areas, respectively. The high base flows in these two basins appear to correlate with an equally high percentage of massive sandstone members of the Catskill Formation, which underlies the entire region. Ground-water seepage from these sandstone members may be responsible for the high base flows of these two streams.