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Montana has a wide variety of natural resources. Conflicting demands to
develop or preserve these resources result in considerable controversy over
resource-management policies and decisions. For more than 100 years, the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) has worked closely with Federal, State, and local
interests to help provide the scientific knowledge and understanding of the
geologic and hydrologic resources of Montana. This information is needed
for the wise management, development, and protection of those resources.
As demands to develop and protect those resources increase, a comprehensive
understanding of natural resources becomes increasingly important.
Numerous scientific investigations are being conducted by the USGS
throughout Montana. |
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A moderate to high potential for the occurrence of undiscovered gold
deposits in the Helena National Forest is indicated by historical mining,
past and present exploration activities, and geologic, geochemical, and
geophysical data from USGS regional studies. Almost $2 billion of
economically recoverable gold was discovered recently in the McDonald Hot
Spring gold deposit on land adjacent to National Forest land near Lincoln.
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is assessing the potential effects of
development of that deposit, as well as undiscovered deposits.
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Geologic and hydrologic information provided by the USGS contribute to the
assessment of the effects of development. Digital geologic maps are the
foundation of information used by USFS scientists to assess and manage
mineral exploration and development activities. A particularly useful USGS
product is a map that illustrates the occurrence of limestones, which could
serve to fix (chemically bind) potentially hazardous chemical elements that
otherwise would be released to the environment through extraction or
processing activities. |
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Coal usage accounts for one-third of the total energy and more than
one-half of the electricity generated in the Nation. The Clean Air Act and
its amendments of 1990 have renewed interest in locating coals that are low
in hazardous air pollutants, sulfur, and ash content. Montana contains
vast reserves of low-sulfur coal that are potentially suitable for energy
production. The USGS, in cooperation with the Montana Bureau of Mines and
Geology, has developed a comprehensive data base that contains information
on coal distribution, quality, and land use that is useful to Federal,
State, and local planning, management, and regulatory agencies. Continuing
efforts to locate and map coal deposits are being expanded to collect
additional information on the quality of coal and to estimate the amount of
remaining coal reserves that may be available for power generation under
evolving environmental constraints. Studies are being conducted by the
USGS, in cooperation with the Office of Surface Mining and the Montana
Bureau of Mines and Geology, to develop models that can be used to help
determine the distribution of coals that meet environmental criteria and
that are based on depositional history and tectonic controls. Information
stored in the National Coal Resources Data System is available in map and
table form for use by other agencies in planning and implementing regional
and national energy-production strategies. |
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The USGS Biological Resources Division (formerly the National Biological
Service) conducts research throughout Montana on wildlife and fisheries
issues. The USGS Northern Prairie Science Center is conducting studies to
assess the use by grassland bird populations of lands enrolled in the
Conservation Reserve Program. The Midcontinent Ecological Science Center
(MESC) is providing information on global climate change, status and trends
of natural resources, ecology of threatened species, aquatic ecosystems,
and wildlife ecology in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National
Park. Research is also being conducted on the distribution, movements,
habitat use, food habits, and population dynamics of grizzly bears in the
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In a partnership with the Aldo Leopold
Wilderness Research Institute, MESC provides coordination and direction to
ecological and human dimensions research relevant to the understanding and
management of wilderness and other protected areas. |
Two Cooperative Research Units are active in Montana. The Fisheries Unit
is located at Montana State University in Bozeman and provides information
to help managers develop fish-harvest regulations. The Wildlife Unit, in
Missoula at the University of Montana, provides information on the impacts
of predation on waterfowl populations and the effects of habitat
fragmentation on populations. |
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Eastern Montana is underlain by part of the Williston Basin, which is a
major petroleum-producing basin in the upper Central United States. The
Basin contains an organically rich shale, the Bakken Formation, within
which the petroleum is "self-sourcing" (the rocks that now hold the oil
also are believed to be the rocks that harbored the organic matter from
which the oil was derived). The Overthrust Belt is a region of highly
deformed strata from which petroleum also is produced, and it underlies
parts of northwestern Montana. |
The USGS has been working closely with the Montana Bureau of Mines and
Geology and the Gas Research Institute to assess the natural gas and
petroleum potential for Montana. The USGS is conducting a geochemical
investigation of the self-sourcing potential of the Bakken Formation to
determine if a better understanding of the process here can be applied in
other regions of the country that may be underlain by formations of similar
character. If such regions are found elsewhere, then new horizontal
drilling technology may be able to unlock major new petroleum reserves. |
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Proper management of public lands and integration of land-use policies for
public and private lands requires extensive geologic information to
understand the consequences and effects of various land-management
decisions. The USGS, in cooperation with the Montana Bureau of Mines and
Geology, is creating digital geological data bases of mineral and energy
resources; composition, characteristics, and distribution of bedrock and
surficial deposits; characteristics and location of rock fractures; and
location of natural hazards. Geologic mapping information is needed by
management and regulatory agencies to assess the future effects of mineral,
energy, and forest-products development on agriculture, water resources,
fish and wildlife habitat, and recreational features; the distribution and
movement of metals in soil and water from abandoned mines and
hazardous-waste sites; the geologic hazards (earthquakes, floods,
landslides, volcanic ash-falls) and environmental changes (erosion and
deposition) that may adversely affect populations and infrastructure; and
the effects of liquid- and solid-waste disposal. |
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The USGS, the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, and the Idaho Geological
Survey are conducting a cooperative research project to enhance
under-standing of earthquake hazards common to Montana and Idaho. The team
of scientists is studying Quaternary faulting, the stratigraphic record of
paleoliquefaction, and the present-day seismicity associated with the Lewis
and Clark Zone. The Zone is a 60,000-square-kilometer area of western
Montana and northern Idaho that is geologically related to the Lewis and
Clark Line, which is a fault or shear zone that extends more than 300
kilometers from Helena, Montana, to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The Zone
includes major population areas of western Montana and northern Idaho, as
well as the main transportation and lifeline corridors in the region. It
is a hub of tourism, particularly in the summer, connecting visitors to
Glacier-Waterton and Yellowstone Parks, as well as the coastal Northwest and
Canada. |
The USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) in Golden, Colorado,
collects, processes, and distributes information from more than 20,000
seismic events each year. This information is distributed in the form of
alerts, bulletins, and routine catalogs to emergency-management officials
at Federal and State levels, operators of critical facilities, news media,
the general public, and the earthquake research community. These catalogs
of recent and historical earthquake information are used in earthquake
hazards assessments. To fulfill its mission, the NEIC has developed and is
deploying the U.S. National Seismograph Network (USNSN), which, when
completed, will consist of about 60 seismograph stations nationwide. The
USNSN monitors nationwide seismicity, provides early notification of
seismic events to national level emergency-services personnel, maintains an
archive of high-quality digital data on national seismicity, and provides
information on earthquakes to the public. |
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The USGS is cooperating with Federal, State, and local agencies to produce
digital maps that provide a common base for numerous activities. The use
of maps and digital cartographic data is widespread, and requirements for
this information are expanding dramatically. The USGS strives to ensure
that map data in graphic and digital forms are available to the public
through timely and effective data-collection and revision procedures.
Among the most popular and versatile products of the USGS are its
1:24,000-scale topographic maps (1 inch on the map represents 2,000 feet on
the ground). These maps depict basic natural and cultural features of the
landscape, such as lakes and streams, highways and railroads, boundaries,
and geographic names. Contour lines are used to depict the elevation and
shape of terrain. Montana is covered by 2,995 maps at this scale, which is
useful for civil engineering, land-use planning, natural-resource
monitoring, and other technical applications. These maps have long been
favorites with the general public for a wide variety of outdoor uses. |
The USGS and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality have entered
into a partnership for the production of 1:24,000-scale digital elevation
models (DEM's) that cover a part of south-central Montana. DEM data
consist of an array of regularly spaced elevations registered to a
topographic map. The Department of Environmental Quality applies DEM's in
its search for suitable locations for new transmission lines, large
pipelines, and electricity-generating plants. |
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Data-sharing partnerships between the USGS and the non-Federal sector have
been formed through the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
Competitive Cooperative Agreements Program. This Program provides funding
to State and local government agencies, academia, and the private sector
to encourage resource-sharing projects through the
use of technology, networking, and interagency coordination. Organizations
in Montana have been funded by the program to pursue two NSDI projects.
The Montana GIS (Geographic Information System) Data Clearinghouse project
is a collaboration of the Montana Natural Resource Information System and
the interagency Montana GIS Technical Working Group. This project is
establishing multiple NSDI nodes, implementing the Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC)-metadata standards, implementing the Spatial Data Transfer
Standard, updating the Montana GIS standards plan to bring it in line with
FGDC goals, designing tools for accessing geospatial data, and providing
more communication opportunities for geospatial data users within the
State. |
The Montana Local Government GIS Coalition Project is facilitating local
government participation in the NSDI. The Coalition, which is being led by
the Montana State University Geographic Information and Analysis Center, is
encour-aging data sharing among local government and private organizations,
working with local governments to develop a metadata plan in compliance
with the FGDC metadata standard, building a local government data
repository, establishing an NSDI clearinghouse node on the World Wide Web
(WWW) for local governments, and implementing a Montana Local Government
GIS users list server on the Internet. The Coalition's WWW node can be
accessed at:
http://nris.msl.mt.gov/ |
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Streamflow information is needed by numerous Federal, State, local, and
Tribal governments and private entities for flood forecasting and warning;
operation and management of reservoirs used for irrigation storage, flood
control, and hydroelectric power generation; design of bridges, culverts,
abutments, and other highway structures; management of irrigation projects,
waste-discharge facilities, and public water supplies; water-rights
adjudication; recreation; and other purposes. Much of the streamflow
information is provided by the USGS through cooperative programs with
Federal, State, and local agencies.
The USGS first measured streamflow in the Missouri River at Fort Benton in
1881, and a streamflow-gaging station has been continually operated at the
site since 1890. Streamflow information has been monitored at hundreds of
sites throughout Montana, and many stations have continuous records that
span more than 80 years. In 1996, the USGS collected continuous streamflow
records at 190 sites and monitored streamflow during critical irrigation
periods at an additional 109 locations (fig.
1). Of the streamflow-gaging
stations in Montana, more than 100 are equipped with realtime
data-collection systems. Realtime data for 46 stations and other
information are available on the WWW at:
http://montana.usgs.gov/
Measuring stream discharge at every potentially significant site is neither
practical nor feasible. Techniques that provide estimates of streamflow
with quantifiable precision and accuracy have been developed by the USGS.
These methods can be used in some circumstances as an alternative to more
expensive and time-consuming streamflow-gaging methods.
(Click on image for a larger version, 50K GIF)
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Figure 1. Streamflow-monitoring sites in Montana. |
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The USGS, in cooperation with State and Federal agencies, also has
developed several methods for estimating the magnitude and frequency of
floods in Montana on the basis of information from more than 500 streamflow
and peak-discharge monitoring sites in and near Montana. Techniques
outlined in several USGS reports can be used to estimate peak discharges
for various recurrence intervals from readily obtainable information on
drainage-basin characteristics and stream-channel features. These
techniques are used extensively in the design and construction of bridges,
culverts, levees, diversion structures, dams, and spillways.
Flood-frequency information also is used by planners and managers for
land-use management of flood plains and the establishment of actuarial
flood-insurance rates.
The USGS, in cooperation with State and Federal agencies, has collected
information on ground-water levels, and quality, well yields, and aquifer
properties at more than 24,000 sites throughout Montana. Currently (1996),
water-level recorders are installed on 22 wells to monitor water-level
changes at selected locations. Periodic water-level measurements are
available for several hundred wells for periods of more than 50 years.
Water-quality data are available for about 26,000 sites in Montana.
Information ranges from one-time field measurements of specific conductance
(an indicator of dissolved-solids concentration) to many years of periodic
sampling for chemical constituents.
Hydrologic data collected by the USGS are stored in the National Water
Information System data bases and are available to the public. Hydrologic
data and the results of numerous investigations also are available to the
public through various types of reports. |
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Tailings from past metal mining and smelting activities have been dispersed
along stream channels and flood plains since the 1880's in the Upper Clark
Fork Basin of western Montana. Areas affected by these activities, from
Butte to Milltown Reservoir, have been designated as Superfund sites by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and are scheduled for remedial cleanup
activities. The USGS, in cooperation with several Federal and State
agencies, conducted an inventory of ground-water resources in the area and
has been collecting information on the source, distribution, concentration,
and movement of trace elements in aquatic biota, surface water, and
suspended sediment since 1985.
Information collected from existing wells in the Basin was used to map
ground-water flow patterns, areas of ground-water discharge to the river,
and ground-water quality. Although concentrations of arsenic were small in
all ground-water samples, concentrations were largest in water from
alluvium located near the river. Suspended-sediment and trace-element
concentrations in the Clark Fork and its major tributaries were compared
with aquatic life criteria for chronic and acute toxicity. Concentrations
of copper and lead indicated a persistent source of metals in the upper
Basin and potential biological risk. |
Information from the USGS studies and monitoring activities provides
valuable baseline data to evaluate the effects of current and planned
remedial measures to control or reduce levels of trace elements in
streamflow, ground water, and sediment. |
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The Earth Science Information Centers (ESIC's) provide information about
USGS programs, products, and technological developments to the public. The
ESIC in Butte was established under a cooperative agreement between the
USGS and the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. As part of the national
ESIC network, this office provides information on such earth science topics
as cartography, geography, digital data, remote sensing, geology,
geophysics, geochemistry, hydrology, geohydrology, aerial photography and
land use. It is supported by the USGS with reference materials, technical
assistance, training and outreach activities, and access to USGS data
bases.
The Center for Environmental Geochemistry and Geophysics (CEGG) focuses on
environmental geoscience research and information exchange. The CEGG
coordinates and supports basic and applied research on the natural and
human-induced environmental effects associated with geologic
sources-especially those related to mineral and energy resources and their
development. Some examples of currently supported investigations include
environmental geochemistry of historical mining and smelting activities,
transport and fate of toxic elements in natural systems, and use of
naturally occurring minerals as scavengers for toxic metals. |
The Montana District Office of the USGS provides hydrologic information,
assistance in ordering maps and publications, and details of studies being
conducted by the USGS in the State. The office also can help provide
information on USGS activities nationwide. |
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The USGS cooperates with more than 25 Federal, State, and local agencies in
Montana. Cooperators include county planning agencies and health
departments, public natural-resource agencies, Indian Reservations, and
numerous Federal agencies. Cooperative activities include water-resources
data collection, interpretive water-availability and water-quality studies,
mineral-resource assessments, and mapping. When local and State agencies
are involved, activities typically are funded on a matching basis. In
addition to agencies already mentioned, the USGS cooperates with, among
others, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the
Bureau of Reclamation, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and
Conservation, the Montana Department of Transportation, the Confederated
Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the Fort Peck
Tribes, the Blackfeet Nation, the Wyoming State Engineer, and Ravalli
County. |
The USGS provides support to the Montana Water Resources Research Center,
which conducts a program of research, education, and information
and technology transfer.
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