Estimating lithium concentrations in groundwater used as drinking water for the conterminous United States
Melissa Lombard, Eric E. Brown, Daniel Saftner, Monica M. Arienzo, Esme Fuller-Thomson, Craig J. Brown, Joseph D. Ayotte
2024, Environmental Science and Technology (58) 1255-1264
Lithium (Li) concentrations in drinking-water supplies are not regulated in the United States; however, Li is included in the 2022 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list of unregulated contaminants for monitoring by public water systems. Li is used pharmaceutically to treat bipolar disorder, and studies have linked its occurrence in drinking...
Contribution of arsenic and uranium in private wells and community water systems to urinary biomarkers in US adults: The Strong Heart Study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
Maya Spaur, Ronald A. Glabonjat, Kathrin Schilling, Melissa Lombard, Galvez-Fernandez, Wil Lieberman-Cribbin, Carolyn Hayek, Vesna Ilievski, Olgica Balac, Chiugo Izuchukwu, Kevin Patterson, Anirban Basu, Benjamin Bostick, Qixuan Chen, Tiffany Sanchez, Ana Navas-Acien, Anne E Nigra
2024, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology (34) 77-89
BackgroundChronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (As) and uranium (U) in the United States (US) occurs from unregulated private wells and federally regulated community water systems (CWSs). The contribution of water to total exposure is assumed to be low when water As and U concentrations are low.ObjectiveWe...
Advancing subsurface investigations beyond the borehole with passive seismic horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio and electromagnetic geophysical methods at transportation infrastructure sites in New Hampshire
James Degnan, Krystle Pelham, Neil Terry, Sydney M. Welch, Carole D. Johnson
2023, Conference Paper
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT), surveyed transportation infrastructure sites using rapidly deployable geophysical methods to assess benefits added to a comprehensive site characterization with traditional geotechnical techniques. Horizontal-to-vertical spectral-ratio (HVSR) passive-seismic and electromagnetic-induction (EMI) methods were applied at 4 sites...
Train, inform, borrow, or combine? Approaches to process-guided deep learning for groundwater-influenced stream temperature prediction
Janet R. Barclay, Simon Nemer Topp, Lauren Elizabeth Koenig, Margaux Jeanne Sleckman, Alison P. Appling
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
Although groundwater discharge is a critical stream temperature control process, it is not explicitly represented in many stream temperature models, an omission that may reduce predictive accuracy, hinder management of aquatic habitat, and decrease user confidence. We assessed the performance of a previously-described process-guided deep learning model...
Highway-runoff quality from segments of open-graded friction course and dense-graded hot-mix asphalt pavement on Interstate 95, Massachusetts, 2018–21
Kirk P. Smith, Alana B. Spaetzel, Phillip A. Woodford
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5127
Highway runoff is a source of sediment and associated constituents to downstream waterbodies that can be managed with the use of stormwater-control measures that reduce sediment loads. The use of open-graded friction course (OGFC) pavement has been identified as a method to reduce loads from highway runoff because it retains...
Evaluating water-quality conditions in the mainstem and tidal reaches of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, June to September 2020
Kaitlin Laabs, Casey Beaudoin, Jason R. Sorenson, Alex Bissell
2023, Data Report 1166
In summer and early fall (June to September) 2020, water-quality data were collected at 13 stations along the mainstem of the Merrimack River and into the Merrimack River estuary. The data are allocated among three different datasets: discrete water sample data, discrete vertical profile data, and continuous data. The collective...
Assessment of prerestoration water quality in the Herring River to support adaptive management at the Cape Cod National Seashore
Thomas G. Huntington
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5120
In 2020 and 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey, Cape Cod National Seashore of the National Park Service, and Friends of Herring River cooperated to assess nutrient and suspended sediment concentrations across the ocean-estuary boundary at a dike on the Herring River on Chequessett Neck Road in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, that has...
New England Water Science Center—Bringing quality and reliable water science to New England
Katrina Rossos
2023, General Information Product 227
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center provides timely and reliable information to Federal, State, Tribal, and local stakeholders on the water resources of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This information product broadly describes the center’s research priorities and monitoring network and how...
Where the past meets the present: Connecting nitrogen from watersheds to streams through groundwater flowpaths
Eric M. Moore, Janet R. Barclay, Adam B. Haynes, Kevin E. Jackson, Alaina M. Bisson, Martin Briggs, Ashley M. Helton
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Groundwater discharge to streams is a nonpoint source of nitrogen (N) that confounds N mitigation efforts and represents a significant portion of the annual N loading to watersheds. However, we lack an understanding of where and how much groundwater N enters streams and watersheds. Nitrogen concentrations at...
Development of the North Carolina stormwater-treatment decision-support system by using the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
Gregory E. Granato, Charles C. Stillwell, J. Curtis Weaver, Andrew H. McDaniel, Brian S. Lipscomb, Susan C. Jones, Ryan M. Mullins
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5113
The Federal Highway Administration and State departments of transportation nationwide need an efficient method to assess potential adverse effects of highway stormwater runoff on receiving waters to optimize stormwater-treatment decisions. To this end, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration and the North Carolina Department of...
Characterizing changes in the 1-percent annual exceedance probability streamflows for climate-change scenarios in the Housatonic River watershed of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York
Scott A. Olson
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5090
Current methods for determining the 1-percent annual exceedance probability (AEP) for a streamflow assume stationarity (the assumption that the statistical distribution of data from past observations does not contain trends and will continue unchanged in the future). This assumption allows the 1-percent AEP to be determined based on historical streamflow...
Approaches for assessing flows, concentrations, and loads of highway and urban runoff and receiving-stream stormwater in southern New England with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
Gregory E. Granato, Alana B. Spaetzel, Lillian C. Jeznach
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5087
The Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) was designed to help quantify the risk of adverse effects of runoff on receiving waters, the potential need for mitigation measures, and the potential effectiveness of such management measures for reducing these risks. SELDM is calibrated using representative hydrological and water-quality input...
The consequences of neglecting reservoir storage in national-scale hydrologic models: An appraisal of key streamflow statistics
Glenn A. Hodgkins, Thomas M. Over, Robert W. Dudley, Amy M. Russell, Jacob H. LaFontaine
2023, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (60) 110-131
A better understanding of modeled streamflow errors related to basin reservoir storage is needed for large regions, which normally have many ungaged basins with reservoirs. We quantified the difference between modeled and observed streamflows for one process-based and three statistical-transfer hydrologic models, none of which explicitly accounted for reservoir storage....
CGS: Coupled growth and survival model with cohort fairness
Erhu He, Yue Wan, Benjamin Letcher, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Yiquin Xie, Xiaowei Jia
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Thirty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Fish modeling in complex environments is critical for understanding drivers of population dynamics in aquatic systems. This paper proposes a Bayesian network method for modeling fish survival and growth over multiple connected rivers. Traditional fish survival models capture the effect of multiple environmental drivers (e.g., stream temperature, stream flow)...
A Monte-Carlo chemical budget approach to assess ambient groundwater flow in bedrock open boreholes
Philip Harte
2023, Groundwater Monitoring and Remediation (44) 57-71
In low-permeability rocks, ambient groundwater flow in open boreholes may go undetected using conventional borehole-flowmeter tools and alternative approaches may be needed to identify flow. Understanding ambient flow in open boreholes is important for tracking of cross contamination in groundwater. Chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC)...
Evaluation of alternative groundwater-withdrawal scenarios on water levels in Kingsbury Pond, upper Charles River Basin, eastern Massachusetts
Paul M. Barlow, Paul J. Friesz, Jeffrey R. Barbaro
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5083
Kingsbury Pond is a glacial kettle pond in the town of Norfolk, Massachusetts, in the Mill River Basin, which is part of the Upper Charles River Basin in eastern Massachusetts. The pond is hydraulically connected to the surrounding groundwater-flow system, and water levels in the pond fluctuate in response to...
Assessment of factors that influence human water demand for Providence, Rhode Island
Timothy J. Stagnitta, Laura Medalie
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5057
To determine the most relevant climatic and economic factors driving water demand for Providence, Rhode Island, and to further the understanding of human interactions with water availability, linear regression models were developed to estimate single-family and multifamily residential, commercial, and industrial water demand for the service area of Providence Water...
Groundwater residence times in glacial aquifers—A new general simulation-model approach compared to conventional inset models
J. Jeffrey Starn, Leon J. Kauffman, Daniel T. Feinstein
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5142
Groundwater is important as a drinking-water source and for maintaining base flow in rivers, streams, and lakes. Groundwater quality can be predicted, in part, by its residence time in the subsurface, but the residence-time distribution cannot be measured directly and must be inferred from models. This report compares residence-time distributions...
Satellite remote sensing of river discharge: A framework for assessing the accuracy of discharge estimates made from satellite remote sensing observations
David M. Bjerklie, Michael Durand, James M. LeNoir, Robert W. Dudley, Charon Birkett, John Jones, Merritt Elizabeth Harlan
2023, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (17)
This research presents an evaluation of the accuracy and uncertainty of estimates of river discharge made using satellite observed data sources as input to a modified form of Manning’s equation. Conventional U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow gaging station...
A framework for estimating global river discharge from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite mission
Michael Durand, Colin Gleason, Tamlin Pavelsky, Renato Frasson, Michael Turmon, Cedric H. David, Elizabeth Altenau, Nikki Tebaldi, Kevin Larnier, Jerome Monnier, Pierre Olivier Malaterre, Hind Oubanas, George Allen, Brian Astifan, Craig Brinkerhoff, Paul Bates, David M. Bjerklie, Stephen Coss, Robert W. Dudley, Luciana Fengolio, Pierre-Andre Garambois, Augusto Getirana, Peirong Lin, Steven A. Margulis, Pascal Matte, J.Toby Minear, Aggrey Muhebwa, Ming Pan, Daniel L. Peters, Ryan Riggs, Md Safat Sikder, Travis Simmons, Cassie Stuurman, Jay Taneja, Angelica Tarpanelli, Kerstin Schulze, Mohammad Tourian, Jida Wang
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will vastly expand measurements of global rivers, providing critical new data sets for both gaged and ungaged basins. SWOT discharge products (available approximately 1 year after launch) will provide discharge for all river that reaches wider than 100 m. In this...
Cross-sectional associations between drinking water arsenic and urinary inorganic arsenic in the US: NHANES 2003-2014
Maya Spaur, Melissa Lombard, Joseph D. Ayotte, Benjamin C. Bostick, Steven N. Chillrud, Ana Navas-Acien, Anne E. Nigra
2023, Environmental Research (227)
Background: Inorganic arsenic is a potent carcinogen and toxicant associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. The contribution of drinking water from private wells and regulated community water systems (CWSs) to total inorganic arsenic exposure is not clear. Objectives: To determine the association between drinking water arsenic estimates and urinary arsenic concentrations...
Preliminary machine learning models of manganese and 1,4-dioxane in groundwater on Long Island, New York
Leslie A. DeSimone
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5120
Manganese and 1,4-dioxane in groundwater underlying Long Island, New York, were modeled with machine learning methods to demonstrate the use of these methods for mapping contaminants in groundwater in the Long Island aquifer system. XGBoost, a gradient boosted, ensemble tree method, was applied to data from 910 wells for manganese...
Assessing potential effects of climate change on highway-runoff flows and loads in southern New England by using planning-level space-for-time analyses
Lillian C. Jeznach, Gregory E. Granato, Daniel Sharar-Salgado, Susan C. Jones, Daniel Imig
2023, Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board. (2677) 570-581
Transportation agencies need information about the potential effects of climate change on the volume, quality, and treatment of stormwater to mitigate potential effects of runoff on receiving waters. To address these concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Federal Highway Administration used the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project...
Stream temperature prediction in a shifting environment: The influence of deep learning architecture
Simon Nemer Topp, Janet R. Barclay, Jeremy Alejandro Diaz, Alexander Y. Sun, Xiaowei Jia, Daniel Lubin, Jeffrey M Sadler, Alison P. Appling
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
Stream temperature is a fundamental control on ecosystem health. Recent efforts incorporating process guidance into deep learning models for predicting stream temperature have been shown to outperform existing statistical and physical models. This performance is in part because deep learning architectures can actively learn spatiotemporal relationships that...
2022 drought in New England
Dee-Ann E. Crozier, James M. LeNoir, Pamela J. Lombard
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5016
Introduction During April through September 2022, much of New England experienced a short but extreme hydrologic drought that was similar to the drought of 2020. By August 2022, Providence, Rhode Island, was declared a Federal disaster area, and New London and Windham counties in Connecticut were declared natural disaster areas. Mandatory...
