Methods to characterize environmental settings of stream and groundwater sampling sites for National Water-Quality Assessment
Naomi Nakagaki, Kerie J. Hitt, Curtis V. Price, James A. Falcone
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5194
Characterization of natural and anthropogenic features that define the environmental settings of sampling sites for streams and groundwater, including drainage basins and groundwater study areas, is an essential component of water-quality and ecological investigations being conducted as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment program. Quantitative characterization of...
Sampling history and 2009--2010 results for pesticides and inorganic constituents monitored by the Lake Wales Ridge Groundwater Network, central Florida
Anne F. Choquette, R. Scott Freiwald, Carol L. Kraft
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1231
The Lake Wales Ridge Monitoring (LWRM) Network was established to provide a long-term record of water quality of the surficial aquifer in one of the principal citrus-production areas of Florida. This region is underlain by sandy soils that contain minimal organic matter and are highly vulnerable to leaching of chemicals...
Low-flow frequency and flow duration of selected South Carolina streams in the Saluda, Congaree, and Edisto River basins through March 2009
Toby D. Feaster, Wladmir B. Guimaraes
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1253
Part of the mission of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is to protect and preserve South Carolina's water resources. Doing so requires an ongoing understanding of streamflow characteristics of the rivers and streams in South Carolina. A particular...
Evaluation of quality-control data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey for routine water-quality activities at the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, 1996–2001
Gordon W. Rattray
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5270
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, collects surface water and groundwater samples at and near the Idaho National Laboratory as part of a routine, site-wide, water-quality monitoring program. Quality-control samples are collected as part of the program to ensure and document the quality of...
Comparison of two regression-based approaches for determining nutrient and sediment fluxes and trends in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Douglas Moyer, Robert M. Hirsch, Kenneth Hyer
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5244
Nutrient and sediment fluxes and changes in fluxes over time are key indicators that water resource managers can use to assess the progress being made in improving the structure and function of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The U.S. Geological Survey collects annual nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment flux data...
U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, 2011 report of selected wildlife diseases
David E. Green, Megan Hines, Robin E. Russell, Jonathan M. Sleeman
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5271
The National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) was founded in 1975 to provide technical assistance in identifying, controlling, and preventing wildlife losses from diseases, conduct research to understand the impact of diseases on wildlife populations, and devise methods to more effectively manage these disease threats. The impetus behind the creation of...
Groundwater quality in the Colorado River basins, California
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3034
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Groundwater quality in the Indian Wells Valley, California
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3035
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Shallow groundwater quality and geochemistry in the Fayetteville Shale gas-production area, north-central Arkansas, 2011
Timothy M. Kresse, Nathaniel R. Warner, Phillip D. Hays, Adrian Down, Avner Vengosh, Robert B. Jackson
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5273
The Mississippian Fayetteville Shale serves as an unconventional gas reservoir across north-central Arkansas, ranging in thickness from approximately 50 to 550 feet and varying in depth from approximately 1,500 to 6,500 feet below the ground surface. Primary permeability in the Fayetteville Shale is severely limited, and successful extraction of the...
Groundwater quality in the Antelope Valley, California
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3033
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Status of groundwater quality in the California Desert Region, 2006-2008: California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5040
Groundwater quality in six areas in the California Desert Region (Owens, Antelope, Mojave, Coachella, Colorado River, and Indian Wells) was investigated as part of the Priority Basin Project of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The GAMA Priority Basin Project is being conducted by the California State Water...
2008 Joint United States-Canadian program to explore the limits of the Extended Continental Shelf aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy--Cruise HLY0806
Jonathan R. Childs, Peter J. Triezenberg, William W. Danforth
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1210
In September 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), conducted bathymetric and geophysical surveys in the Arctic Beaufort Sea aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Healy. The principal objective of this mission to the high Arctic was to acquire...
Groundwater quality in the Owens Valley, California
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3032
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Groundwater quality in Coachella Valley, California
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3098
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Groundwater quality in the Mojave area, California
Barbara J. Milby Dawson, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3036
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Sediment transport to and from small impoundments in northeast Kansas, March 2009 through September 2011
Guy M. Foster, Casey J. Lee, Andrew C. Ziegler
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5269
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Kansas Water Office, investigated sediment transport to and from three small impoundments (average surface area of 0.1 to 0.8 square miles) in northeast Kansas during March 2009 through September 2011. Streamgages and continuous turbidity sensors were operated upstream and downstream from Atchison...
Quality of surface water in Missouri, water year 2011
Miya N. Barr
2012, Data Series 734
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, designed and operates a series of monitoring stations on streams throughout Missouri known as the Ambient Water-Quality Monitoring Network. During the 2011 water year (October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2011), data were collected at 75 stations—72...
Understanding the role of ecohydrological feedbacks in ecosystem state change in drylands
L. Turnbull, B.P. Wilcox, J. Belnap, S. Ravi, P. D’Odorico, D. Childers, W. Gwenzi, G. Okin, J. Wainwright, K.K. Caylor, T. Sankey
2012, Ecohydrology (5) 174-183
Ecohydrological feedbacks are likely to be critical for understanding the mechanisms by which changes in exogenous forces result in ecosystem state change. We propose that in drylands, the dynamics of ecosystem state change are determined by changes in the type (stabilizing vs amplifying) and strength of ecohydrological feedbacks following a...
Hydrologic and sediment data collected from selected basins at the Fort Leonard Wood Military Reservation, Missouri--2010-11
Joseph M. Richards, Paul H. Rydlund Jr., Miya N. Barr
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5268
Commercial and residential development within a basin often increases the amount of impervious area, which changes the natural hydrologic response to storm events by increasing runoff. Land development and disturbance combined with increased runoff from impervious areas potentially can increase sediment transport. At the Fort Leonard Wood Military Reservation in...
Assessing the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination: Rio Grande aquifer system in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Martha L. Jagucki, Laura M. Bexfield, Charles E. Heywood, Sandra M. Eberts
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3138
This fact sheet highlights findings from the vulnerability study of a public-supply well in Albuquerque, New Mexico (hereafter referred to as “the study well”). The study well produces about 3,000 gallons of water per minute from the Rio Grande aquifer system. Water samples were collected at the study well, at...
Variance partitioning of stream diatom, fish, and invertebrate indicators of biological condition
Robert E. Zuellig, Daren M. Carlisle, Michael R. Meador, Marina Potapova
2012, Freshwater Science (31) 182-190
Stream indicators used to make assessments of biological condition are influenced by many possible sources of variability. To examine this issue, we used multiple-year and multiple-reach diatom, fish, and invertebrate data collected from 20 least-disturbed and 46 developed stream segments between 1993 and 2004 as part of the US Geological...
Occurrence model for volcanogenic beryllium deposits
Nora K. Foley, Albert H. Hofstra, David A. Lindsey, Robert R. Seal II, Brian W. Jaskula, Nadine M. Piatak
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5070-F
Current global and domestic mineral resources of beryllium (Be) for industrial uses are dominated by ores produced from deposits of the volcanogenic Be type. Beryllium deposits of this type can form where hydrothermal fluids interact with fluorine and lithophile-element (uranium, thorium, rubidium, lithium, beryllium, cesium, tantalum, rare earth elements, and...
Land Capability Potential Index (LCPI) and geodatabase for the Lower Missouri River Valley
Kimberly A. Chojnacki, Matthew A. Struckhoff, Robert B. Jacobson
2012, Data Series 736
The Land Capacity Potential Index (LCPI) is a coarse-scale index intended to delineate broad land-capability classes in the Lower Missouri River valley bottom from the Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, South Dakota to the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis, Missouri (river miles 811–0). The LCPI provides a...
The occurrence of trace elements in bed sediment collected from areas of varying land use and potential effects on stream macroinvertebrates in the conterminous western United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, 1992-2000
Angela P. Paul, Nicholas V. Paretti, Dorene E. MacCoy, Anne M.D. Brasher
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5272
As part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program of the U.S. Geological Survey, this study examines the occurrence of nine trace elements in bed sediment of varying mineralogy and land use and assesses the possible effects of these trace elements on aquatic-macroinvertebrate community structure. Samples of bed sediment and macroinvertebrates...
Interbasin water transfer, riverine connectivity, and spatial controls on fish biodiversity
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Heather J. Lynch, Rachata Muneepeerakul, Arunachalam Muthukumarasamy, Ignacio Rodríguez-Iturbe, William F. Fagan
2012, PLoS ONE (7)
Background Large-scale inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) projects are commonly proposed as solutions to water distribution and supply problems. These problems are likely to intensify under future population growth and climate change scenarios. Scarce data on the distribution of freshwater fishes frequently limits the ability to assess the potential implications of...
