Shallow ground water beneath the Puerco River of Arizona and New Mexico was studied to determine the effects of uranium-mining releases on water quality. Ground-water samples collected from 1989 to 1991 indicate that concentrations of dissolved uranium have decreased. Most samples from the alluvial aquifer downstream from Gallup, New Mexico, met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant levels for gross alpha, gross beta, and radium and the proposed maximum contaminant level for uranium.