Search Results

The University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Discovery Farms (Discovery Farms) and UW-Platteville Pioneer Farm (Pioneer Farm) programs were created in 2000 to help Wisconsin farmers meet environmental and economic challenges. As a partner with each program, and in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Sand County Foundation,...

The Lower and Combined Aquifers of the Eastbank Aquifer system, located in a river-terrace deposit along the Columbia River near Rocky Reach Dam, Washington, are primarily recharged by the Columbia River and provide water to the Eastbank Hatchery and the regional water system servicing the cities of Wenatchee, East Wenatchee,...

Environmental managers are often faced with the task of designing strategies to accommodate development while minimizing adverse environmental impacts. Low-impact development (LID) is one such strategy that attempts to mitigate environmental degradation commonly associated with impervious surfaces. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,...

Multi-year droughts have been a recurrent feature of the climate and hydrology of Kansas since at least the 1930s. Streamflow records collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) indicate that water years 2000 to 2006 (October 1, 1999, through September 30, 2006) represent the sixth hydrologic drought during the past...

Ground-water quality in the approximately 950 square kilometer (370 square mile) Central Sierra study unit (CENSIE) was investigated in May 2006 as part of the Priority Basin Assessment project of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The GAMA Priority Basin Assessment project was developed in response to the...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) analyzed changes in the configuration of land and water in coastal Louisiana by using a sequential series of 14 data sets summarizing land and water areas from 1956 to 2006. The purpose of this study is to provide a spatially and temporally consistent source of...

Recent climate studies in New England and the northeastern United States have shown evidence of physical changes over time, including trends toward earlier snowmelt runoff, decreasing river ice, and increasing spring water temperatures. A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study funded by the National Global Warming and Wildlife Science Center will...

Cyanobacteria and associated toxins and taste-and-odor compounds are of increasing environmental concern. However, consistent guidelines for the development of studies assessing cyanobacterial toxins and taste-and-odor compounds presently are not available. This report provides guidance for the development of scientific studies of cyanobacteria and associated by-products in lakes and reservoirs. Topics...

This report presents the results of a study by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, to illustrate a water-budget method for mapping the spatial distribution of ground-water recharge for a 76-square-mile part of the Jordan Creek watershed, northwest of Allentown, in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Recharge...

Using widely-available software intended for modeling rivers, a new one-dimensional hydraulic model was developed for the Colorado River through Grand Canyon from Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek. Solving one-dimensional equations of energy and continuity, the model predicts stage for a known steady-state discharge at specific locations, or cross sections, along...

Lago La Plata dam is located between the municipalities of Naranjito and Toa Alta in north central Puerto Rico, about 5 kilometers south of the town of Toa Alta and about 5 kilometers north of the town of Naranjito. The reservoir impounds the waters of the Rio de La Plata, the...

Flow logs from 24 test wells were analyzed as part of the hydraulic characterization of the metamorphosed and fractured carbonate bedrock at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, New York. The flow logs were analyzed along with caliper, optical- and acoustic-televiewer, and fluid-resistivity and temperature logs to determine the...

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program found, in studies from 1991 to 2001, low levels of mixtures of contaminants in ground water near the water table in urban areas across the Nation. Although contaminants were detected less frequently in deeper ground water typically developed for public supply...

Pueblo Reservoir is one of southeastern Colorado's most valuable water resources. The reservoir provides irrigation, municipal, and industrial water to various entities throughout the region. The reservoir also provides flood control, recreational activities, sport fishing, and wildlife enhancement to the region. The Bureau of Reclamation is working to meet its...

Great Lakes state agencies and organizations view understanding consumptive water use as a critical component in water-resource management. To assist them in developing a better understanding of the factors involved in consumptive use, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has completed an inventory of consumptive-use coefficients for the Great Lakes Basin....

Housing development and recreational activity in Emigration Canyon have increased substantially since 1980, perhaps causing an observed decrease in water quality of this northern Utah stream located near Salt Lake City. To identify reaches of the stream that contribute to water-quality degradation, a tracer-injection and synoptic-sampling study was done to...

In 1990, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a study of the hydrogeology of Huron County, Michigan (Sweat, 1991). In 1993, Huron County and the USGS entered into a continuing agreement to collect water-level altitudes (hereafter referred to as water levels) at selected wells throughout Huron County. As part...

Ground- and surface-water samples were collected in the vicinity of the Standard Mine in west-central Colorado in order to characterize the local ground-water flow system, determine metal concentrations in local ground water, and better understand factors controlling the discharge of metal-rich waters from the mine. The sampling program included a...

Sixty-five sampling sites, selected by a statistical design to represent lengths of perennial streams in North Dakota, were chosen to be sampled for water chemistry and mercury in fish tissue to establish unbiased baseline data. From the assessment of all water chemistry constituents, the percentage of stream length considered to...

The Middle Fork of the Saline River has many qualities that have been recognized by State and Federal agencies. The Middle Fork provides habitat for several rare aquatic species and is part of a larger stream system (the Upper Saline River) that is known for relatively high levels of species...

The population of Delta County, Colorado, like that in much of the Western United States, is forecast to increase substantially in the next few decades. A substantial portion of the increased population likely will reside in rural subdivisions and use residential wells for domestic water supplies. In Colorado, a subdivision...

Pueblo Reservoir is west of Pueblo, Colorado, and is an important water resource for southeastern Colorado. The reservoir provides irrigation, municipal, and industrial water to various entities throughout the region. In anticipation of increased population growth, the cities of Colorado Springs, Fountain, Security, and Pueblo West have proposed building a...

The Neversink River, in the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York State, feeds the Neversink Reservoir, which diverts 85 percent of the river’s flow to New York City. Acidification of several headwater reaches has affected macroinvertebrate assemblages throughout the river system above the reservoir, and the alteration of flow conditions...

Sixty-five sampling sites, selected by a statistical design to represent lengths of perennial streams in North Dakota, were chosen to be sampled for fish and aquatic insects (macroinvertebrates) to establish unbiased baseline data. Channel catfish and common carp were the most abundant game and large fish species in the Cultivated...

Regression analyses and hydrodynamic modeling were used to identify environmental factors and flow paths associated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) concentrations at Memorial and Metropolitan Beaches on Lake St. Clair in Macomb County, Mich. Lake St. Clair is part of the binational waterway between the United States and Canada that...