During a visit to Rutgers University by Dr. Allen Shapiro from the US Geological Survey, the 2004 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer, some of us gathered for an informal discussion on the hydrogeology of the Newark Basin: what we do and do not know. We were struck by the large amount of information that has been gathered by various investigators, the unawareness and the unavailability of this information to the larger research and practice community, the diversity of processes that we study, the diverse views that we hold as to what controls groundwater flow and transport, the various advanced tools and techniques that we can potentially use, and finally, the lack of synthesis of our findings across the regions and formations of the Basin, as well as across the research and practice communities (government agencies, universities, and private sectors). The idea of a regional workshop thus emerged. Such a workshop, with participation from a wide spectrum of the research and practice community, would provide the proper forum for such integration of ideas and findings.

We held a planning meeting on March 11, 2004, at the USGS NJ District Office. The tentative organizing committee (volunteered) consists of,

Glen Carleton, USGS NJ
Greg Herman, NJGS
Pierre Lacombe, USGS NJ
Andrew Michalski, Michalski Associates, Inc.
Ying Fan Reinfelder, Rutgers University
Lisa Senior, USGS PA
Mike Serfes, NJGS
Laura Toran, Temple University
Zoltan Szabo, USGS NJ

The result of the March meeting was to hold a conference on the Hydrogeology of Newark Basin on November 11-12, 2004 at Rutgers University. We encourage all interested individuals and organizations to submit an abstract for oral or poster presentation at the workshop. Authors of accepted abstracts will be encouraged to submit a paper of professional quality for inclusion in a symposium volume, as a bound chapter book, to be published by the Rutgers University Press.

We also encourage individuals or companies to present and demonstrate state-of-art tools or techniques for subsurface investigation in fractured bedrock environments. There will be an exhibition hall where demonstrations can be given.

There will also be a display of the cores obtained from the Newark Basin Coring Project (for details, check here)