Post-Wildfire Hydrologic Hazards in the Wildland Urban Interface of Colorado and the Western United States
M. R. Stevens, C. R. Bossong, M.G. Rupert, A.J. Ranalli, E.W. Cassidy, A.D. Druliner
2008, Fact Sheet 2007-3036
Following a wildfire, such as the 2002 Missionary Ridge fire, a number of hydrologic hazards may develop that can have an important impact on water resources, businesses, homes, reservoirs, roads, and utilities in the wildland urban interface (areas where homes and commercial developments are interspersed with wildlands) in mountainous areas...
Magnetotelluric Data, San Luis Valley, Colorado
Brian D. Rodriguez, Jackie M. Williams
2008, Open-File Report 2007-1405
The San Luis Valley region population is growing. Water shortfalls could have serious consequences. Future growth and land management in the region depend on accurate assessment and protection of the region?s ground-water resources. An important issue in managing the ground-water resources is a better understanding of the hydrogeology of the...
Environmental presence and persistence of pharmaceuticals: An overview
Susan T. Glassmeyer, Dana W. Koplin, Edward T. Furlong, M. Focazio
2008, Book chapter, Fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment and in water treatment systems
Emerging contaminants (ECs) in the environment – that is, chemicals with domestic, municipal, industrial, or agricultural sources that are not commonly monitored but may have the potential for adverse environmental effects – is a rapidly growing field of research. The use of “emerging” is not intended to infer that the...
Use of a groundwater flow model to assess the location, extent, and hydrologic properties of faults in the Rialto-Colton Basin, California
Linda R. Woolfenden
Eileen Poeter, Mary C. Hill, Chunmiao Zheng, editor(s)
2008, Conference Paper, MODFLOW and More 2008: Ground water and public policy — Conference proceedings
Faults within a groundwater basin can greatly influence the direction of groundwater flow and contaminant migration. Existing steady-state and transient groundwater flow models were used to assess the location, extent, and hydrologic properties of two alternative fault configurations within the Rialto-Colton basin. Adjustments were made to the hydrologic properties of...
Pre- and post-eruptive investigations of gas and water samples from Mount St. Helens, Washington, 2002 to 2005
D. Bergfeld, William C. Evans, Kenneth A. McGee, Kurt R. Spicer
David R. Sherrod, William E. Scott, Peter H. Stauffer, editor(s)
2008, Professional Paper 1750-25
Samples of gas and water from thermal springs in Loowit and Step canyons and creeks that drain the crater at Mount St. Helens have been collected since October 2004 to monitor the flux of dissolved magmatic volatiles in the hydrologic system. The changing composition of the waters highlights a trend...
Relating streamflow characteristics to specialized insectivores in the Tennessee River Valley: a regional approach
Rodney R. Knight, M. Brian Gregory, Amy K. Wales
2008, Ecohydrology (1) 394-407
Analysis of hydrologic time series and fish community data across the Tennessee River Valley identified three hydrologic metrics essential to habitat suitability and food availability for insectivorous fish communities in streams of the Tennessee River Valley: constancy (flow stability or temporal invariance), frequency of moderate flooding (frequency of habitat disturbance),...
Subsidence reversal in a re-establish wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, USA
Robin L. Miller, Miranda S. Fram, Roger Fujii, Gail A. Wheeler
2008, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (6)
The stability of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is threatened by continued subsidence of Delta peat islands. Up to 6 meters of land-surface elevation has been lost in the 150 years since Delta marshes were leveed and drained, primarily from oxidation of peat soils. Flooding subsided peat islands halts...
Integration of regional hydrologic modeling using FORTRAN and ArcGIS
Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint
2008, Water Resources Impact (10) 31-35
Seasonal and spatial variability in dissolved organic matter quantity and composition from the Yukon River basin, Alaska
R.G.M. Spencer, George Aiken, Kimberly P. Wickland, Rob Striegl, Peter J. Hernes
2008, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (22)
[1] The seasonal and spatial variability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) quantity and chemical composition were investigated in the Yukon River basin of Alaska, United States, and northwestern Canada. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chromophoric DOM (CDOM), and dissolved lignin phenols were measured across a range of source...
Mining II: Acid mine drainage
D. Kirk Nordstrom
2008, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of environmental ethics and philosophy
No abstract available. ...
N-15 NMR study of the immobilization of 2,4- and 2,6-dinitrotoluene in aerobic compost
Kevin A. Thorn, J.C. Pennington, Kay R. Kennedy, Larry G. Cox, C.A. Hayes, B.E. Porter
2008, Environmental Science & Technology (42) 2542-2550
Large-scale aerobic windrow composting has been used to bioremediate washout lagoon soils contaminated with the explosives TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) and RDX (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine) at several sites within the United States. We previously used 15N NMR to investigate the reduction and binding of T15NT in aerobic bench -scale reactors simulating the conditions of windrow...
Numerical modeling of rainfall thresholds for shallow landsliding in the Seattle, Washington, area
Jonathan W. Godt, Jonathan P. McKenna
2008, Reviews in Engineering Geology (20) 121-136
The temporal forecasting of landslide hazard has typically relied on empirical relations between rainfall characteristics and landslide occurrence to identify conditions that may cause shallow landslides. Here, we describe an alternate, deterministic approach to define rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence in the Seattle, Washington, area. This approach combines an infinite...
Reply to comment by T. N. Narasimhan on “A method to estimate groundwater depletion from confining layers”
Christopher E. Neuzil, Leonard F. Konikow
2008, Water Resources Research (44)
We thank T. N. Narasimhan for his comment on our paper [Konikow and Neuzil, 2007] and for extending the discussion with a historical perspective, additional examples, and some considerations we did not discuss, including implications for water management. We support and agree with the thrust of his comments....
Application of MODFLOW’s farm process to California’s Central Valley
Claudia C. Faunt, Randall T. Hanson, Wolfgang Schmid, Kenneth Belitz
2008, Conference Paper, California Central Valley Groundwater Modeling Workshop, Proceedings
Historically, California’s Central Valley has been one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. The Central Valley also is rapidly becoming an important area for California’s expanding urban population. During 1980–2007, the population nearly doubled in the Central Valley, increasing the competition for water. Because of the importance...
Effects of 2003 wildfires on stream chemistry in Glacier National Park, Montana
M. Alisa Mast, David W. Clow
2008, Hydrological Processes (22) 5013-5023
Changes in stream chemistry were studied for 4 years following large wildfires that burned in Glacier National Park during the summer of 2003. Burned and unburned drainages were monitored from December 2003 through August 2007 for streamflow, major constituents, nutrients, and suspended sediment following the fires. Stream-water nitrate concentrations showed...
Mathematical models frame environmental dispute [Review of the article Useless arithmetic: Ten points to ponder when using mathematical models in environmental decision making]
Berton Lee Lamb, Nina Burkardt
2008, Public Administration Review (68) 55-60
When Linda Pilkey- Jarvis and Orrin Pilkey state in their article, "Useless Arithmetic," that "mathematical models are simplified, generalized representations of a process or system," they probably do not mean to imply that these models are simple. Rather, the models are simpler than nature and that is the heart of...
Fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing: A new tool for assessment and monitoring of hydrologic processes
John W. Lane Jr., Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Carole D. Johnson, Cian B. Dawson, David L. Nelms, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Jerrod D. Wheeler, Charles F. Harvey, Hanan N. Karam
2008, Conference Paper, Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems 2008
Fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing (FO DTS) is an emerging technology for characterizing and monitoring a wide range of important earth processes. FO DTS utilizes laser light to measure temperature along the entire length of standard telecommunications optical fibers. The technology can measure temperature every meter over FO cables up to...
Attribution of declining Western U.S. Snowpack to human effects
D.W. Pierce, T.P. Barnett, H.G. Hidalgo, T. Das, Celine Bonfils, B.D. Santer, G. Bala, M. D. Dettinger, D.R. Cayan, A. Mirin, A.W. Wood, T. Nozawa
2008, Journal of Climate (21) 6425-6444
Observations show snowpack has declined across much of the western United States over the period 1950-99. This reduction has important social and economic implications, as water retained in the snowpack from winter storms forms an important part of the hydrological cycle and water supply in the region. A formal model-based...
Modeling soil moisture processes and recharge under a melting snowpack
A. L. Flint, L. E. Flint, M. D. Dettinger
2008, Conference Paper, Vadose Zone Journal
Recharge into granitic bedrock under a melting snowpack is being investigated as part of a study designed to understand hydrologic processes involving snow at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Snowpack measurements, accompanied by water content and matric potential measurements of the soil under the snowpack,...
Human-induced changes in the hydrology of the Western United States
T.P. Barnett, D.W. Pierce, H.G. Hidalgo, Celine Bonfils, B.D. Santer, T. Das, G. Bala, A.W. Wood, T. Nozawa, A.A. Mirin, D.R. Cayan, M. D. Dettinger
2008, Science (319) 1080-1083
Observations have shown that the hydrological cycle of the western United States changed significantly over the last half of the 20th century. We present a regional, multivariable climate change detection and attribution study, using a high-resolution hydrologic model forced by global climate models, focusing on the changes that have already...
A simulation/optimization model for groundwater resources management in the Afram Plains area, Ghana
S.M. Yidana
2008, Journal of Environmental Hydrology (16) 1-14
A groundwater flow simulation model was developed using available hydrogeo logical data to A groundwater flow simulation model was developed using available hydrogeological data to describe groundwater flow in the Afram Plains area. A nonlinear optimization model was then developed and solved for the management of groundwater resources to meet...
InSAR detects possible thaw settlement in the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain
Russell P. Rykhus, Zhong Lu
2008, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing (34) 100-112
Satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has proven to be an effective tool for monitoring surface deformation from volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, and groundwater withdrawal. This paper seeks to expand the list of applications of InSAR data to include monitoring subsidence possibly associated with thaw settlement over the Alaskan Arctic Coastal...
Trends of pesticides and nitrate in ground water of the Central Columbia Plateau, Washington, 1993-2003
L. Frans
2008, Conference Paper, Journal of Environmental Quality
Pesticide and nitrate data for ground water sampled in the Central Columbia Plateau, Washington, between 1993 and 2003 by the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program were evaluated for trends in concentration. A total of 72 wells were sampled in 1993-1995 and again in 2002-2003 in three well networks...
Compound-specific stable isotopes of organic compounds from lake sediments track recent environmental changes in an alpine ecosystem, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
S.K. Enders, M. Pagani, S. Pantoja, Jill Baron, A.P. Wolfe, N. Pedentchouk, L. Nunez
2008, Limnology and Oceanography (53) 1468-1478
Compound-specific nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen isotope records from sediments of Sky Pond, an alpine lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado, United States of America), were used to evaluate factors contributing to changes in diatom assemblages and bulk organic nitrogen isotope records identified in lake sediments across Colorado, Wyoming, and...
Boulder Creek: A stream ecosystem in an urban landscape
Philip L. Verplanck, Sheila F. Murphy, Peter W. Birkeland, Pitlick John, Larry B. Barber, Travis S. Schmidt
Robert G.H. Raynolds, editor(s)
2008, Book chapter, Roaming the Rocky Mountains and environs: Geological field trips
The Boulder Creek Watershed, within the Front Range region of Colorado, is typical of many western watersheds because it is composed of a high-gradient upper reach mostly fed by snowmelt, a substantial change in gradient at the range front, and an urban corridor within the lower gradient section. A stream...
