Chronic wasting disease—Research by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners
M. Camille Hopkins, Christina M. Carlson, Paul C. Cross, Christopher J. Johnson, Bryan J. Richards, Robin E. Russell, Michael D. Samuel, Glen A. Sargeant, Daniel P. Walsh, W. David Walter
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1109
IntroductionChronic wasting disease (CWD) is the only transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a class of invariably fatal neurodegenerative mammalian diseases associated with a misfolded cellular prion protein found in wild free-ranging animals. Because it has a long incubation period, affected animals in Cervidae (the deer family; referred to as “cervids”) may not...
Differentiating sediment sources using sediment fingerprinting techniques, in the Sprague River Basin, South-Central Oregon
Liam N. Schenk, Tessa M. Harden, Julia K. Kelson
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1120
Identifying sources of sediment to streams in the Sprague River Basin, in south-central Oregon, is important for restoration efforts that are focused on reducing sediment erosion and transport. Reducing sediment loads in these streams also contributes to compliance with the total maximum daily load reduction requirements for total phosphorus...
Using the STARS Model to evaluate the effects of two proposed projects for the long-term operation of State Water Project Incidental Take Permit Application and CEQA compliance
Russell W. Perry, Amy C. Hansen, Scott D. Evans, Tobias J. Kock
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1127
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) requested analysis of juvenile Chinook salmon survival in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (henceforth identified as “the Delta”) as part of an effects analysis that will be included in an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) Application. This application is in compliance with the...
Instructions for running the analytical code PAT (Purge Analyzer Tool) for computation of in-well time of travel of groundwater under pumping conditions
P.T. Harte, B. J. Huffman, Tomas Perina, Herb Levine, Daewon Rojas-Mickelson
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1104
IntroductionUnderstanding the optimal time needed to purge a well while pumping to collect a representative groundwater sample requires an understanding of groundwater flow in wells (in-well flow). Parameters that affect in-well flow include the hydraulic properties of the aquifer, well construction, drawdown from pumping, and pump rate. The time of...
Using the STARS model to evaluate the effects of the proposed action for the reinitiation of consultation on the coordinated long-term operation of the Central Valley and State Water Project
Russell W. Perry, Adam C. Pope, Vamsi K. Sridharan
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1125
In 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and California Department of Water Resources requested a reinitiation of consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act on the coordinated long-term operations of the Central Valley and State Water Projects. This resulted in a Biological Assessment released by USBR in...
Full Equations Model Graphical Data Inspector (FEQ–GDI) user guide
Jessica L. Ern, Terry Ortel, Audrey L. Ishii, Maitreyee Bera
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1113
The Full Equations Model Graphical Data Inspector (FEQ–GDI) is a menu-driven utility program that enables users to visualize and check the geometric and hydraulic properties of channel cross sections, selected control structures, and stream profiles in the input files for the Full Equations (FEQ) Model and the Full Equations Utilities...
Detailed Lithologic Logs from Auger Holes in southern Charleston County, southwestern Dorchester County, and eastern Colleton County, South Carolina
Robert E. Weems, William C. Lewis
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1119
The lithologic logs described in this open-file report are from holes augered in the South Carolina Low Country in parts of Charleston, Dorchester, and Colleton Counties from 1998 through 2010. Lithologic units described here include not only surficial Pleistocene units but also subsurface stratigraphic units ranging as far back in...
Near-field receiving-water monitoring of trace metals and a benthic community near the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in south San Francisco Bay, California—2018
Daniel J. Cain, Janet K. Thompson, Francis Parchaso, Sarah Pearson, Robin Stewart, Matthew A. Turner, Kelly H. Shrader, Emily L. Zierdt Smith, Samuel N. Luoma
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1084
Trace-metal concentrations in sediment and in the clam Macoma petalum (formerly reported as Macoma balthica), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure were investigated in a mudflat 1 kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (PARWQCP) in south San Francisco Bay, Calif. This report includes...
Optimization of salt marsh management at the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex through use of structured decision making
Hilary A. Neckles, James E. Lyons, Jessica L. Nagel, Susan C. Adamowicz, Toni Mikula, Nicholas T. Ernst
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1103
Structured decision making is a systematic, transparent process for improving the quality of complex decisions by identifying measurable management objectives and feasible management actions; predicting the potential consequences of management actions relative to the stated objectives; and selecting a course of action that maximizes the total benefit achieved and balances...
Study design and methods for a wetland condition assessment on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fee-title lands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, USA
Brian Tangen, Sheel Bansal, Rachel R. Fern, Edward S. DeKeyser, Christina L. M. Hargiss, David M. Mushet, Cami S. Dixon
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1118
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) manages wetlands and grasslands for wildlife habitat throughout the central North American Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). PPR wetlands, or potholes, are widely recognized as critical habitats for North American migratory waterfowl, waterbirds, and other wildlife. Potholes also provide other ecosystem services such as...
Evaluating barrier island characteristics and piping plover (Charadrius melodus) habitat availability along the U.S. Atlantic Coast—Geospatial approaches and methodology
Sara L. Zeigler, Emily J. Sturdivant, Benjamin T. Gutierrez
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1071
Policy makers, individuals from government agencies, and natural resource managers face increasing demands to manage coastal areas in a way that meets economic, social, and ecological needs as sea levels rise. Scientific knowledge of how coastal processes drive beach and barrier island changes and how those changes affect habitat use...
Estimated use of water in Georgia for 2015 and water-use trends, 1985–2015
Jaime A. Painter
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1086
Water-withdrawal, water-use, and water-return information have been collected and compiled for each county in Georgia every 5 years since 1980 using data obtained from various Federal, State, and private agencies, as well as additional online sources. For 2015, water use, water withdrawal, and water returns were estimated for each county,...
Hurricane Matthew: Predictions, observations, and an analysis of coastal change
Justin J. Birchler, Kara S. Doran, Joseph W. Long, Hilary F. Stockdon
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1095
Hurricane Matthew, the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the 2016 hurricane season, made land-fall south of McClellanville, S.C., around 1500 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on October 8, 2016. Hurricane Matthew affected the States of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina along the U.S. Atlantic coastline. Numerous barrier islands were breached,...
Economic valuation of Landsat imagery
Crista L. Straub, Stephen R. Koontz, John B. Loomis
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1112
Landsat satellites have been operating since 1972, providing a continuous global record of the Earth’s land surface. The imagery is currently available at no cost through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A previous USGS study estimated that Landsat imagery provided users an annual benefit of $2.19 billion in 2011, with...
Baseline environmental monitoring of groundwater, surface water, and soil at the Ammonium Perchlorate Rocket Motor Destruction Facility at the Letterkenny Army Depot, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 2016
Daniel G. Galeone
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1094
Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, built an Ammonium Perchlorate Rocket Motor Destruction (ARMD) facility in 2016. The ARMD Facility was designed to centralize rocket motor destruction and contain or capture all waste during the destruction process. Ideally, there would be no contaminant transport to air, soil, or water from...
Sampling across 20 years (1996–2017) reveals loss of diversity and genetic connectivity in the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata)
Amy G. Vandergast, Dustin A. Wood, Mark Fisher, Cameron W. Barrows, Anna Mitelberg, Julia G. Smith
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1105
The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata) is a federally threatened, aeolian sand dune obligate, endemic to the Coachella Valley, California. Historically, U. inornata is thought to have formed a large interconnected metapopulation across the valley, with local dune habitat and population size fluctuations linked to stochastic droughts and flooding. Since the...
Geology of the Monte Blanco borate deposits, Furnace Creek Wash, Death Valley, California
S.J. Muessig, W.M. Pennell, Jeffrey R. Knott, James P. Calzia
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1111
The Monte Blanco borate deposits are located along the southern margin of Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Wash, south of Twenty Mule Team Canyon road in California. Topographic and geologic mapping by S. Muessig and F.M. Byers, Jr., in 1954 documented these deposits’ geologic settings, geometries, mineralogies, and chemical characteristics. They...
Coastal Salinity Index along the southeastern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, 1983 to 2018
Matthew D. Petkewich, Kirsten Lackstrom, Bryan J. McCloskey, Lauren F. Rouen, Paul A. Conrads
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1090
Coastal droughts have a different dynamic than upland droughts, which are typically characterized by agricultural, hydrologic, meteorological, and (or) socioeconomic effects. Drought uniquely affects coastal ecosystems because of changes in the salinity conditions of estuarine creeks and rivers. The location of the freshwater-saltwater interface in surface-water bodies is an important...
Anderson Ranch wetlands hydrologic characterization in Taos County, New Mexico
Amy E. Galanter, Zachary M. Shephard, Pamela Herrera-Olivas
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1100
The Anderson Ranch property (study area), located in Taos County, north-central New Mexico, was transferred from Chevron Mining, Inc. (CMI) to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) court-ordered settlement. The study area supports freshwater emergent wetlands and freshwater ponds....
Using the stream salmonid simulator (S3) to assess juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) production under historical and proposed action flows in the Klamath River, California
John M. Plumb, Russell W. Perry, Nicholas A. Som, Julie Alexander, Nicholas J. Hetrick
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1099
Executive SummaryThe production of Klamath River fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in northern California and southern Oregon is thought to be limited by poor survival during freshwater juvenile life stages, in part a result of Ceratonova shasta—a highly infectious disease that can lead to high fish mortality. Higher flushing...
Application of the Stream Salmonid Simulator (S3) to Klamath River fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), California—Parameterization and calibration
Russell W. Perry, John M. Plumb, Edward C. Jones, Nicholas A. Som, Thomas B. Hardy, Nicholas J. Hetrick
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1107
Executive SummaryIn this report, we describe application of the Stream Salmonid Simulator (S3) to Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Klamath River between Keno Dam in southern Oregon and the ocean in northern California. S3 is a deterministic life-stage-structured population model that tracks daily growth, movement, and survival...
Characterization and load estimation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from selected Rio Grande tributary stormwater channels in the Albuquerque urbanized area, New Mexico, 2017–18
Zachary M. Shephard, Kathleen E. Conn, Kimberly R. Beisner, Alanna D. Jornigan, Christina F. Bryant
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1106
In cooperation with the New Mexico County of Bernalillo, the U.S. Geological Survey characterized potential polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentration and estimated loading into the Rio Grande from watersheds that are under the county’s jurisdiction. Water and sediment samples were collected in 2017–18 from six sites within four stormwater drainage basins...
Preliminary GIS representation of deep coal areas for carbon dioxide storage in the contiguous United States and Alaska
Kevin B. Jones, Laura E. Barnhart, Peter D. Warwick, Margo D. Corum
2019, Open-File Report 2018-1178
This report and its accompanying geospatial data outline many areas of coal in the United States beneath more than 3,000 ft of overburden. Based on depth, these areas may be targets for injection and storage of supercritical carbon dioxide. Additional areas where coal exists beneath more than 1,000 ft of...
Regional-scale associations between indicators of biological integrity and indicators of streamflow modification
Daren M. Carlisle, Theodore E. Grantham, Ken Eng, David M. Wolock
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1088
Although streamflow is widely recognized as a controlling factor in stream health, empirical relations between indicators of anthropogenic modification of streamflow and ecological indicators have been elusive. The objective of this report is to build upon specific findings reported in recent publications by providing a library of empirical models that...
Numerical model simulations of potential changes in water levels and capture of natural discharge from groundwater withdrawals in Snake Valley and adjacent areas, Utah and Nevada
Melissa D. Masbruch
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1083
The National Park Service (NPS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are concerned about cumulative effects of groundwater development on groundwater-dependent resources managed by, and other groundwater resources of interest to, these agencies in Snake Valley and adjacent areas, Utah and Nevada. Of particular concern to the NPS and...
