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Four dams on the Kalamazoo River between the cities of Plainwell and Allegan, Mich., are in varying states of disrepair. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) are considering removing these dams to restore the river channels to pre-dam conditions. This study was initiated...

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources began a comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluation-monitoring program in 1989 to assess the effectiveness of the Wisconsin Nonpoint Source Program. Hydrologic, water-quality, habitat, and fish data were collected at Otter Creek from 1990 to 2002 with the pre-BMP (best-management practice) period...

In 1999, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated studies of mercury and methylmercury occurrence, transformation, and transport in the Bear River and Yuba River watersheds of the northwestern Sierra Nevada. Because these watersheds were affected by large-scale, historical gold extraction using mercury amalgamation beginning in the 1850s, they were selected...

The Great Miami River Buried Valley Aquifer System is one of the most productive sources of potable water in the Midwest, yielding as much as 3,000 gallons per minute to wells. Many water-supply wells tapping this aquifer system are purposely placed near rivers to take advantage of induced infiltration from...

The California Aquifer Susceptibility Assessment of the Ground-Water Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program was developed to assess water quality and susceptibility of ground-water resources to contamination from surficial sources. This study focuses on the Mojave River and the Antelope Valley ground-water basins in southern California. Volatile organic compound (VOC) data...

The Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana is an important source of energy resources for the United States. Coalbed methane gas is contained in Tertiary and upper Cretaceous hydrogeologic units in the Powder River Basin. This gas is released when water pressure in coalbeds is lowered, usually by pumping...

In the mid-1990s, the Colorado Division of Water Resources (CDWR) adopted rules governing measurement of tributary ground-water pumpage for the Arkansas River Basin. The rules allowed ground-water pumpage to be determined using one of two approaches?power conversion coefficient (PCC) or totalizing flowmeters (TFM). In addition, the rules allowed a PCC...

Current (1997?2001) and historical (1948?49, 1968?69) nitrate-concentration and water-level data collected from wells completed in the unconfined aquifer in the intensively cultivated area north of the Rio Grande in south-central Colorado were used to determine the distribution and mass of nitrate and to determine short- and long-term trends in the...

Woods Inlet is a flooded stream channel on the southern shore of Lake Worth along the western boundary of Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth, Texas, where elevated polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations in sediment were detected in a previous study. In response, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with...

Economic development in Arizona is largely influenced by access to adequate water supplies owing to the State's predominantly semiarid to arid climate. Water demand is met by pumping ground water from aquifers or by con­veying surface water through a system of reservoirs and canals. Water-withdrawal data provide important information on...

Trends in nitrate concentrations in water from 474 wells in 17 subregions in the Columbia Basin Ground Water Management Area (GWMA) in three counties in eastern Washington were evaluated using a variety of statistical techniques, including the Friedman test and the Kendall test. The Kendall test was modified from its...

Springs flowing from the south rim of Grand Canyon are an important resource of Grand Canyon National Park, offering refuge to endemic and exotic terrestrial wildlife species and maintaining riparian areas. Population growth on the Coconino Plateau has increased the demand for additional development of ground-water resources, and such development...

Little Rock Air Force Base is the largest C-130 base in the Air Force and is the only C-130 training base in the Department of Defense. Little Rock Air Force Base is located in central Arkansas near the eastern edge of the Ouachita Mountains, near the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and...

Selected water-quality data collected before, during, and after construction of the H-3 Highway at 13 water-quality stations were compared to the State of Hawaii Department of Health water-quality standards to determine the effects of highway construction on the water quality of the affected streams. Highway construction had no effect on...

Continuing efforts to improve water quality in Onondaga Lake, New York and its tributaries require an understanding of how the natural, brine-filled aquifer in the Onondaga Trough (valley) affects the freshwater in Onondaga Lake. The city of Syracuse, locally known as "The Salt City," was built around the salt springs,...

A study of the Buffalo National River in north-central Arkansas was conducted between July 28-30 and August 13-15, 2003, to characterize the base-flow and water-quality characteristics and streamflow gain and loss in the Buffalo River. The study was separated into two time periods because of a precipitation event that occurred...

Surface-geophysical surveys were conducted in February 2003 at a formerly used defense site in Maine, where residual chlorinated solvents are affecting off-site domestic water-supply wells. The U.S. Geological Survey and Argonne National Laboratory used surface-geophysical methods, including ground-penetrating radar and seismic-refraction tomography, to characterize the lithology and structure of the...

Equations that relate drainage area to bankfull discharge and channel dimensions (width, depth, and cross-sectional area) at gaged sites are needed to define bankfull discharge and channel dimensions at ungaged sites and to provide information for the design of stream-restoration projects. Such equations are most accurate if derived from streams...

Two questions are fundamental to Federal government goals for a network of streamgages which are operated by the U.S. Geological Survey: (1) how well does the present network of streamagaging stations meet defined Federal goals and (2) what is the optimum set of stations to add or reactivate to support...

No abstract available....

The South Coastal Drainage Basin includes approximately 59.14 square miles in southern Rhode Island. The basin was divided into three subbasins to assess the water use and availability: the Saugatucket, Point Judith Pond, and the Southwestern Coastal Drainage subbasins. Because there is limited information on the ground-water system in this...

Surface-water resources in Massachusetts often are affected by eutrophication, excessive plant growth, which has resulted in impaired use for a majority of the freshwater ponds and lakes and a substantial number of river-miles in the State. Because supply of phosphorus usually is limiting to plant growth in freshwater systems,...

Transient numerical ground-water-flow simulation and optimization techniques were used to evaluate potential effects of instream-flow criteria and water-supply demands on ground-water development options and resultant streamflow depletions in the Big River Area, Rhode Island. The 35.7 square-mile (mi2) study area includes three river basins, the Big River Basin (30.9 mi2),...

Flow-deflecting vanes were installed in the streambed along two meander bends with eroding bluffs in 2000 and 2001 in the upper main stem of North Fish Creek, a tributary to Lake Superior in Wisconsin. About 45 vanes were arranged in 15 arrays at each site to deflect the flow away...

This study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture, compared multiple methods for estimating ground-water recharge and base flow (as a proxy for recharge) at sites in east-central Pennsylvania underlain by fractured bedrock and representative of a humid-continental climate....