Hydrogeology of the Tully Lakes Area in Southern Onondaga and Northern Cortland Counties, New York
by William M. Kappel, Todd S. Miller, and Kari K. Hetcher
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4166
ABSTRACT
Glacial processes created the many kettlehole lakes, ponds, and depressions in the
Tully Lakes area, as well as the Valley Heads Moraine, which forms the drainage
divide between the St. Lawrence River drainage to the north and the Susquehanna
River drainage to the south. The first hydrogeologic studies of the Tully Lakes area
began in the 1870's, when the lakes were considered as a possible water supply for the
city of Syracuse. Water was diverted from some of the northwestern lakes and ponds
into the Tully Valley; these diversions occurred as early as the 1840's and ceased in the
early 1960's, with the closure of the eastern Tully Valley brinefield.
In 1998, the USGS began a 2-year hydrogeologic study of the aquifer system
underlying the Tully Lakes area that included monitoring water levels in five of the
Tully Lakes and more than 50 wells. The average annual water-level fluctuations in the
three western lakes ranged from about 2.5 feet to 6 feet. Water-level fluctuations in the
eastern lakes, near the center of the valley, were much less--about 1.5 feet, because
these lakes have natural outlets. Three sets of ground-water-level measurements were
made from the spring recharge period through the fall dry period of 2000. The resulting
potentiometric-surface maps indicate that the water-level declines from the spring to
the fall ranged from 1.5 to 8 feet. The ground-water divide is about 1 mile south of
the Valley Heads Moraine crest in the spring and migrates southward in response to
declining water levels in the surficial aquifer during the fall. Water-surface altitudes in
the kettlehole lakes and ponds respond slowly to seasonal water-level changes in the
surrounding aquifer and often differ from water levels in the aquifer because the poorly
permeable lakebed sediments impede the exchange of water.
Citation: Kappel, William M., Miller, Todd S., and Hetcher, Kari K., 2001, Hydrogeology of the Tully Lakes Area in Southern Onondaga and Northern Cortland Counties, New York:
U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4166, 16 p.
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