Agricultural activities are known to contribute to excess nitrogen in watersheds. Urban/suburban development and activities also contribute to nitrogen loads. These land-derived nitrogen inputs have particular importance with respect to coastal communities because of eutrophication. The Town of Guilford in Connecticut has embarked on a progressive approach to community growth planning (i.e., Smart Growth) and having reliable information regarding denitrification potential in riparian areas can help in decision-making on buffer zones.To add to the body of data on the potential for denitrification within a riparian area in glacial outwash in the Northeast, a riparian zone was chosen in Bittner Park on the West River floodplain in Guilford, CT. Measurements were made in nested piezometers along a transect through the riparian area and into the river. Riparian buffer zones are often considered important ecological areas that can improve water quality by reducing the nitrate load of groundwater discharging into rivers. By using the relatively easy to obtain field indicators of Eh and soil organic matter (indicator of carbon content), the potential for a riparian area to act as a nitrate “sink” can be estimated. In this riparian area, microtopography appears to play a determining role in whether hydrological conditions, chemistry, and microbial activity coexist to allow significant denitrification to occur.