Estimating flood magnitude and frequency on gaged and ungaged streams in Maine
Pamela J. Lombard, Glenn A. Hodgkins
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5092
Accurate estimates of flood frequency and magnitude on rivers and streams in Maine are a key component of effective flood risk management, flood mitigation, and flood recovery programs for the State. Flood-frequency estimates are published here for 148 streamgages in and adjacent to Maine. Equations are provided for users to...
Estimating flood magnitude and frequency on streams and rivers in Connecticut, based on data through water year 2015
Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Glenn A. Hodgkins
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5054
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Transportation, updated flood-frequency estimates with 50-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent annual exceedance probabilities (2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 500-year recurrence intervals, respectively) for 141 streamgages in Connecticut and 11 streamgages in adjacent...
Distribution of selected hydrogeologic characteristics of the upper glacial and Magothy aquifers, Long Island, New York
Donald A. Walter, Jason S. Finkelstein
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5023
The Pleistocene- and Cretaceous-age sediments underlying Long Island, New York, compose an important sole-source aquifer system that is nearly 2,000 feet thick in some areas. Sediment characteristics of importance for water supply include water-transmitting properties—horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivity—and the distribution of lignite, which provides an important control on oxygen-reduction...
Improved prediction of management-relevant groundwater discharge characteristics throughout river networks
Janet R. Barclay, J. Jeffrey Starn, Martin A. Briggs, Ashley Helton
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Groundwater discharge zones connect aquifers to surface water, generating baseflow and serving as ecosystem control points across aquatic ecosystems. The influence of groundwater discharge on surface flow connectivity, fate and transport of contaminants and nutrients, and thermal habitat depends strongly on hydrologic characteristics such as the...
Total water level data from the January and March 2018 nor’easters for coastal areas of New England
Gardner C. Bent, Nicholas J. Taylor
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5048
During winter 2017–18 coastal areas of New England were impacted by the January 4, and March 2–4, 2018, nor’easters. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), under an interagency agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), collected total water level data (the combination of tide, storm surge, wave runup and setup,...
River channel response to dam removals on the lower Penobscot River, Maine, United States
Mathias J. Collins, Alice R. Kelley, Pamela J. Lombard
2020, River Research and Applications (36) 1778-1789
Most geomorphology studies of dam removals have focused on sites with appreciable quantities of stored sediments. There is great interest in channel responses to sediment releases because of potential effects on aquatic and riparian habitats and human uses of these areas. Yet, behind many dams in the Northeast U.S. and...
Pesticides and their degradates in groundwater reflect past use and current management strategies, Long Island, New York, USA
Irene Fisher, Patrick J. Phillips, Banu Bayraktar, Shirley Chen, Brendan A. McCarthy, Mark W. Sandstrom
2020, Science of the Total Environment (752)
Long Island, New York, has a mix of urban/suburban to agricultural/horticultural land use and nearly 3 million residents that rely on a sole-source aquifer for drinking water. The analysis of shallow groundwater (<40 m below land surface) collected from 54 monitoring wells across Long Island detected 53 pesticides or pesticide degradates....
Reduction in drinking water arsenic exposure and health risk through arsenic treatment among private well households in Maine and New Jersey, USA
Qiang Yang, Sara V. Flanagan, Steven Chillrud, James Ross, Wenke Zeng, Charles W. Culbertson, Steve Spayd, Lorraine C. Backer, Andrew E. Smith, Yan Zheng
2020, Science of the Total Environment (738)
Over 2 million people in the United States (U.S.) drink water from private wells that contain arsenic (As) exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 10 micrograms per liter (μg/L). While there are a number of commercially available treatment technologies for removing As from drinking...
Comparing trends in modeled and observed streamflows at minimally altered basins in the United States
Glenn A. Hodgkins, Robert W. Dudley, Amy M. Russell, Jacob H. LaFontaine
2020, Water (12)
We compared modeled and observed streamflow trends from 1984–2016 using five statistical transfer models and one deterministic, distributed-parameter, process-based model, for 26 flow metrics at 502 basins in the United States that are minimally influenced by development. We also looked at a measure of overall model fit and average bias....
Updating data inputs, assessing trends, and evaluating a method to estimate probable high groundwater levels in selected areas of Massachusetts
Janet R. Barclay, John R. Mullaney
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5036
A method to estimate the probable high groundwater level in Massachusetts, excluding Cape Cod and the islands, was developed in 1981. The method uses a groundwater measurement from a test site, groundwater measurements from an index well, and a distribution of high groundwater levels from wells in similar geologic and...
Comparison of SELDM simulated total-phosphorus concentrations with ecological impervious-area criteria
Lillian C. Jeznach, Gregory E. Granato
2020, Journal of Environmental Engineering (146)
Ecological studies indicate that impervious cover (IC) greater than approximately 5%–20% may have adverse effects on receiving-stream ecology. It is difficult to separate the effects of runoff quality from other effects of urbanization on receiving streams. This study presents the results of a numerical experiment to assess...
Characterizing the diverse hydrogeology underlying rivers and estuaries using new floating transient electromagnetic methodology
John W. Lane, Martin A. Briggs, PK Maurya, Eric A. White, JB Pedersen, Esben Auken, Neil Terry, Burke J. Minsley, Wade Kress, Denis R. LeBlanc, Ryan F. Adams, Carole D. Johnson
2020, Science of the Total Environment (740)
The hydrogeology below large surface water features such as rivers and estuaries is universally under-informed at the long reach to basin scales (tens of km+). This challenge inhibits the accurate modeling of fresh/saline groundwater interfaces and groundwater/surface water exchange patterns at management-relevant spatial extents. Here we introduce a towed, floating...
Methods of collection and quality assessment of arsenic data in well-water supplies in Maine, 2001–2 and 2006–7
Charles W. Culbertson, James M. Caldwell, Luther Schalk, Deana Manassaram, Lorraine C. Backer, Andrew E. Smith
2020, Data Series 1125
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, assessed the chemical characteristics and the occurrence, distribution, and oxidation state of inorganic arsenic in drinking water from selected domestic well-water supplies in Maine in 2001–2...
A multi-model approach toward understanding iron fouling at rock-fill drainage sites along roadways in New Hampshire, USA
Melissa Lombard, Pamela J. Lombard, Craig J. Brown, James Degnan
2020, SN Applied Sciences
Factors affecting iron fouling in wet areas adjacent to roadways were investigated by collecting field rock cut and aqueous physicochemical data; developing exploratory predictive models; and developing geochemical models. Basic data included the identification of iron fouling from aerial imagery and field visits at 374 New Hampshire rock cut locations,...
Fluoride occurrence in United States groundwater
Peter B. McMahon, Craig J. Brown, Tyler D. Johnson, Kenneth Belitz, Bruce D. Lindsey
2020, Science of the Total Environment (732)
Data from 38,105 wells were used to characterize fluoride (F) occurrence in untreated United States (U.S.) groundwater. For domestic wells (n = 11,032), water from which is generally not purposely fluoridated or monitored for quality, 10.9% of the samples have F concentrations >0.7 mg/L (U.S. Public Health Service recommended optimal...
Groundwater chloride concentrations in domestic wells and proximity to roadways in Vermont, 2011–2018
Joseph P. Levitt, Sille L. Larsen
2020, Open-File Report 2019-1148
The Vermont Department of Health and the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed the concentrations of chloride in groundwater samples collected from 4,319 domestic wells across Vermont between 2011 and 2018. Ninety of these wells were sampled twice and the remaining 4,229 were sampled once. This sample size represents approximately 4 percent...
Hydrogeologic framework and simulation of predevelopment groundwater flow, eastern Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates
Jack R. Eggleston, Thomas J. Mack, Jeffrey L. Imes, Wade Kress, Dennis W. Woodward, Daniel J. Bright
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5158
Groundwater in eastern Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is an important resource that is widely used for irrigation and domestic supplies in rural areas. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Environment Agency—Abu Dhabi cooperated on an investigation to integrate existing hydrogeologic information and to answer questions about regional...
Fundamental hydraulics of cross sections in natural rivers: Preliminary analysis of a large data set of acoustic doppler flow measurements
David M. Bjerklie, John Fulton, S. Lawrence Dingman, Michael G. Canova, J. Toby Minear, Tommaso Moramarco
2020, Water Resource Research (56)
We have assembled a comprehensive and publicly accessible U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow measurement data set, called HYDRoSWOT, from a USGS National Water Information System archive of acoustic Doppler current profiler river discharge measurements collected from a wide range of rivers throughout the United States. The data...
Borehole‐scale testing of matrix diffusion for contaminated‐rock aquifers
Philip Harte, William C. Brandon
2020, Remediation Journal (30) 37-53
A new method was developed to assess the effect of matrix diffusion on contaminant transport and remediation of groundwater in fractured rock. This method utilizes monitoring wells constructed of open boreholes in fractured rock to conduct backward diffusion experiments on chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) in groundwater. The experiments are...
Hydrogeology and interactions of groundwater and surface water near Mill Creek and the Herring River, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 2017–18
John R. Mullaney, Janet R. Barclay, Kaitlin L. Laabs, Katherine D. Lavallee
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5145
Groundwater levels and stream stage were monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Friends of Herring River, at 19 sites in the Mill Creek Basin, a tributary of the Herring River in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on outer Cape Cod, to provide baseline data prior to a proposed restoration...
Passive seismic survey of sediment thickness, Dasht-e-Nawar basin, eastern Afghanistan
Thomas J. Mack
2020, Conference Paper, Military Geoscience
Exploration of water resources is needed for public supply, extraction of mineral resources, and economic development in Afghanistan. Remotely-sensed data are useful for identifying the general nature of surface sediments, however, “boots on the ground” geophysical surveys or drilling programs are needed to quantify the thickness of sediments or aquifers....
Time scales of arsenic variability and the role of high-frequency monitoring at three water-supply wells in New Hampshire, USA
James R. Degnan, Joseph P. Levitt, Melinda Erickson, Bryant C. Jurgens, Bruce D. Lindsey, Joseph D. Ayotte
2020, Science of the Total Environment (709)
Groundwater geochemistry, redox process classification, high-frequency physicochemical and hydrologic measurements, and climate data were analyzed to identify controls on arsenic (As) concentration changes. Groundwater was monitored in two public-supply wells (one glacial aquifer and one bedrock aquifer), and one bedrock-aquifer domestic well in New...
Nitrogen budgets of the Long Island Sound estuary
Penny Vlahos, Michael Whitney, Christina Menniti, John R. Mullaney, Jonathan Morrison, Yan Jia
2020, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (232)
Nitrogen (N) inputs to coastal ecosystems have significant impacts on coastal community structure. In N limited systems, increases in N inputs may lead to excess productivity and hypoxia. Like many temperate estuaries, Long Island Sound (LIS), a major eastern U.S. estuary, is a N limited system which has experienced seasonal...
Low streamflow trends at human-impacted and reference basins in the United States
Robert W. Dudley, Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Annalise G. Blum, Benjamin Renard
2020, Journal of Hydrology (580)
We present a continent-scale exploration of trends in annual 7-day low streamflows at 2482 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages across the conterminous United States over the past 100, 75, and 50 years (1916–2015, 1941–2015 and 1966–2015). We used basin characteristics to identify subsets of study basins representative of reference basins with streamflow...
Influence of land use and hydrologic variability on seasonal dissolved organic carbon and nitrate export: Insights from a multi-year regional analysis for the northeastern USA
Erin Seybold, Arthur J. Gold, Shreeram P. Inamdar, Carol Adair, W.B. Bowden, Matthew C.H. Vaughan, Soni M. Pradhanang, Kelly Addy, James B. Shanley, Andrew W. Vermilyea, Delphis F. Levia, Beverley Wemple, Andrew W. Schroth
2020, Biogeochemistry (146) 31-49
Land use/land cover (LULC) change has significant impacts on nutrient loading to aquatic systems and has been linked to deteriorating water quality globally. While many relationships between LULC and nutrient loading have been identified, characterization of the interaction between LULC, climate (specifically variable hydrologic forcing) and solute export across seasonal...