MIKE: NEED TO UPDATE THIS WRITE UP - The New Jersey Geological and Water Survey (NJGWS) retains numerous sets of geological and geophysical data dating back to the mid-1800’s.
Data includes, but not limited to, field notebooks, geophysical well logs, maps, rock cores, rock samples, offshore vibracores, sediment samples, near-surface geophysical data. This data is currently stored in numerous places and formats such as boxes, filing cabinets, shelves, share drive, Access database, excel sheets and NJDEP archive. Some data is available through the NJ Geology Information App which we hope to use as the interface for the public to use. NJGWS has been working with the USGS National Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP) to digitize and catalog information in a standardized format, but we do not have a central location to store these files or keep them organized nor is it easy to search for the items we have. As we continue to preserve data that can be used by current and future NJDEP staff, customers, and stakeholders, we are exploring what options are available to create a central database that can pull information from several locations, store current datasets, input new data as we collect it and make it easy for the public to search and access these files.

In addition, the New Jersey Geological and Water Survey retains borehole geophysical logs that have been collected by staff and provided by outside stakeholders. These logs allow staff to document subsurface geology and relate it to water quality (anthropogenic and naturally occurring impacts), drilling, permitting, geologic mapping and site remediation projects and have proven to be invaluable. There have been numerous times when programs within the NJDEP have asked for NJGWS assistance and having this information easily accessible upon request will better equip staff to perform their job duties.

These borehole logs are stored in various locations such as the NJGWS share drive, paper copies in boxes and filing cabinets, excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Access database. With the data being stored in numerous locations, it is difficult to know what is available and how to locate it. In order to better organize, a multi-step process will be employed to collect and disseminate the borehole geophysical logs. The goal is to make geophysical logs available to NJDEP staff through NJEMS and then provide information that is not private  be made available to the public, such as LSRPs, drillers, etc through a GIS interface such as the NJ Geology Information App. Currently there are about 2,000 digital .las and .jpeg files and over 2,000 paper logs that will need to sorted, scanned as PDF-A, .jpeg or .tiff files and associated feature data compiled.