Environmental Health Science Headlines

2013

• Chemical Combo and Intersex Fish Found at Smallmouth Bass Nesting Sites

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• Complex Mixture of Contaminants Persists in Streams Miles from the Source

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• Fungicides from Areas of Intense Use Detected in Streams and Groundwater

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• Organic Contaminants Stored on Sediments Can Slow Down Groundwater Restoration

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2012

• Contaminants Affect Fish and Wildlife in the Chesapeake Bay

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• Natural Attenuation Accelerates Pump-and-Treat Cleanup of TCE in Fractured Rock

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• Findings Suggest VOCs May Help Explain Radionuclide Transport

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• Hormones in Land-Applied Biosolids Could Affect Aquatic Organisms

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• Antibiotics in Groundwater Change Bacterial Ecology

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• New Approach for Evaluating Fish Metal Toxicity

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• Evaluating Acid Mine Drainage Cleanup Strategies

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• Pyrethroid Insecticide Contamination of Streams Increases with Urbanization

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• Improvements in Wastewater Treatment Reduces Endocrine Disruption in Fish

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• USGS Publishes its First Environmental Health Science Strategy

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• New Knowledge on the Fate and Transport of Emerging Contaminants in Rivers

2011

• Sometimes the Question Is "Who Isn't Living There?"

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• Antibiotics in Groundwater Affect Natural Bacteria

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• Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in the Slick Scum that Covers Stones in Streams

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• Chemical Geology Highlights Importance of Diel Processes in Rivers and Lakes

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• Do Natural Processes Mitigate Contamination from Landfill Leachate?

2010

• Evidence of Endocrine Disruption Unexpectedly Found in Minnesota Lakes

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• Estrogenic Chemicals from Plants and Fungi Found in Iowa Streams

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• Mixtures of Pesticides Detected in Crab Embryos

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• Understudied Fungicides Common in U.S. Streams Draining Agricultural Land

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• Measuring Aquifer Properties at Contaminated Sites without Interrupting Remediation

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• Tools to Define Pre-Mining Water-Quality Restoration Targets

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• Algal Blooms Consistently Produce Complex Mixtures of Cyanotoxins and Co-Occur with Taste-and-Odor Causing Compounds in 23 Midwestern Lakes

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• Are Pyrethroid Insecticides in Our Streams?

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• Antidepressants in Stream Waters! Are They in the Fish Too?

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• Manufacturing Facilities Release Pharmaceuticals to the Environment

2009

• Coatings on Sediment Grains Affect Nitrate Storage and Transport

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• Do Combined Sewer Overflows Increase or Decrease Wastewater-Related Chemicals in Receiving Waters?

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• Are Fecal Indicator Bacteria Effective Indicators of Chemical and Pathogenic Contaminants Associated with Human and Animal Waste?

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• Hormones Degrade in the Environment!

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• Some Ecosystems will Respond to Reductions in Mercury Emissions

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• Mercury from Yellowstone's Geysers

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• New Approach to Evaluating Selenium Toxicity in the Environment

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• Fish in Some Streams Accumulate Mercury

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• USGS Contributes to the Design of a Proposed National Mercury Monitoring Network (MercNet)

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• A New Source of Methylmercury Entering the Pacific Ocean

2008

• Measuring How Nitrogen Transforms in Groundwater

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• Clues to High Mercury Along the Gulf Coast

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• Improved Simulation of Contamination in Fractured Rock

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• Visualizing Contamination Pathways in the Subsurface

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• Can We Use Phytoplankton in Coastal Waters as an Indicator of Global Climate Change?

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• Mercury Found to Migrate Horizontally from Landfill

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• Tackling Fish Endocrine Disruption

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• Pesticides are Detected in Vernal Pools in Parks and Wildlife Refuges

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• Measuring Antidepressants, Fungicides, and Insecticides in the Environment

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• Detergents in Streams May Just Disappear

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• Emerging Contaminants Targeted in a Reconnaissance of Ground Water and Untreated Drinking-Water Sources

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• Biosolids, Animal Manure, and Earthworms: Is There a Connection?

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• Fish Exposed to Daily Cycles of Dissolved Metals Show Lower Mortality Rates

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• Zinc and Phosphate Come Back to Haunt Aquifer

2007

• Detecting Amphibian-Killing Fungus Helps Scientists Study Amphibian Declines

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• Climate-Driven Ocean Changes Affect Estuaries: Pacific Ocean Cooling Triggers Phytoplankton Blooms in San Francisco Bay

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• USGS Science Featured in a Special Issue of Applied Geochemistry on Contamination from Oil Production

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• Hydrogen Measured in a New Test for Determining Subsurface Microbiological Activity at Contamination Sites

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• Wastewater Indicators Shown to Degrade in Streams

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• New Report Presents a Framework for Assessing the Sustainability of Monitored Natural Attenuation

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• Endocrine Disruption Found in Fish Exposed to Municipal Wastewater

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• Widespread Accumulations of Natural Perchlorate in Southwestern Soils

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• What Mobilizes Arsenic in Ground Water?

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• Mercury Concentrations in Streams Found to Go Through Daily Cycles

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• Streamflow and Nutrient Delivery from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico

2006<

• Household Chemicals and Drugs Found in Biosolids from Wastewater Treatment Plants

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• Biofilms in Streams Help Create Daily Variations in Metal Concentrations

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• Monitoring Volatile Organic Compounds in Ground Water with Diffusion Samplers

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• New Model Allows for More Accurate Simulation of Tritium Movement in the Unsaturated Zone

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• How Do Contaminants Mix at the Confluence of Streams

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• Challenging a Paradigm: MTBE Shown to Degrade to TBA Without Microorganisms

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• Pharmaceuticals Found in Soil Irrigated with Reclaimed Water

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• New Version of NAS (Natural Attenuation Software) Available

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• Are Pharmaceuticals in Your Watershed? Understanding the Fate of Pharmaceuticals and Other Contaminants in Watersheds

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• RDX Biodegradation Under Metal-Reducing Conditions

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• Decades Required for Natural Processes to Clean Wastewater-Contaminated Ground Water

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• Book Chapter on Exposure Modeling and Monitoring of Human Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

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• New Information on the Long-Term Fate of Ammonium in Ground Water

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• Microorganisms Degrade MTBE Even at Winter Ground-Water Temperatures

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• Does NDMA Biodegrade at Ground-Water Recharge Facilities?

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• Glyphosate Found in Wastewater Discharged to Streams

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2005

• USGS Patents Bioreactors that Treat Nitrate and Methyl Bromide Contamination

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• A Decade of Research on the Occurrence of Triazine Herbicides in the Environment Leads to a Unique Summary

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• Microscopic Phytoplankton Can Cause Big Problems for Estuaries

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• Tracing Wastewater - Using Unique Compounds to Identify Sources of Contamination

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• Biodynamic Model is Unraveling the Complexities of Metal Bioaccumulation from Contaminated Sediments

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• A Tool for Predicting the Effect of Invasive Species on Aquatic Food Webs

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• Importance and Causes of Daily Variation in Metal Concentrations in Streams

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• USGS Develops Geophysical Methods to Improve Remediation Monitoring and Site Characterization

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• Ground-Water Recharge Affects Fate of Petroleum Contaminant Plumes

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• Multidisciplinary Approach to Remediating Watersheds Contaminated from Abandoned Mine Lands

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• New Microorganism Discovered that Survives on Arsenic in an Extremely Harsh Environment

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• Desert Plants Reveal Contaminant Transport Pathways

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• New Model Improves Understanding of the Transport of Carbon Isotopes in the Unsaturated-Zone

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• Predicting Plume Growth Rates - A Simple Method for Calculating Growth Rates of Petroleum Plumes

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• Dr. Samuel N. Luoma Receives 2004 Presidential Rank Award

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• Special Edition of "Environmental Geosciences" Explores Impacts of Oil and Gas Production on the Environment

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• USGS Mobile Atmospheric Mercury Laboratory Makes an Impact

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• USGS Patents the Multifunction Bedrock-Aquifer Transportable Testing Tool (BAT³)

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• National Fish Mercury Model Available On-Line

2004

• USGS Scientists Contribute to New Book on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

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• USGS Scientists Develop New Method to Measure Pharmaceuticals in Water

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• Nitrogen Isotope Study Answers Questions about the Transport of Nutrients in Streams

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• OSTP Report on Methylmercury in the Gulf of Mexico

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• USGS Studies the Natural Recovery of an Organotin Spill

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• Land-Use Activities Release Naturally Occurring Arsenic

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• New Method for Assessing Bed Sediment Contamination

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• History and Ecology of Chloroethene Biodegradation–A Review

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• New Report on Science for Hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico

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• The Changing Face of Microbial Communities in Contaminant Plumes

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• USGS Develops New Field Method for Detecting Chromium VI in Ground Water

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• Using Oxygen to Enhance Biodegradation of Contaminants – Lessons Learned

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• USGS Scientists Contribute to the Landmark "Treatise on Geochemistry"

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• USGS Scientist Receives Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award

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• Developing Methods to Measure New Contaminants in Aquatic Environments

2003

• Veterinary Medicines in the Environment

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• Using Plants To Detect Tritium Contamination

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• Improving Cleanup of Contamination from Oil and Gas Production

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• Software Provides Estimates of How Long it Will Take for Remediation Efforts to Achieve Their Goals

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• High Nitrate in the Desert? What's Going On?

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• Daily Variation of Metals in Streams Can Confound Scientific Studies

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• New Diffusion Samplers Track Contamination Entering Lakes and Ponds

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• Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common

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• Toxics Program Scientists Recognized in 2003

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• New Book on Soil Analysis Methods Destined to Become a Classic

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• Are Deserts Still Drying Out Since the Ice Age?

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• National Reconnaissance of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams is Making an Impact

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• Fiscal Year 2004 President's Budget Request for the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program

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• Tracking Atrazine and a Breakdown Product (deethylatrazine) through a Drinking-Water Reservoir

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• Toxics Program Scientist Selected as 2003 USGS Engineer of the Year

2002

• Used Motor Oil a Potential Source of MTBE in Ground Water

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• "National Reconnaissance of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in Streams" Named as One of the Top 100 Science Stories of the Year

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• A Unique Approach to Evaluating Natural Attenuation is Applied Worldwide

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• SERDP Invests in Technologies Developed by the Toxics Program

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• How Reliable are Chemical Property Data in the Literature?

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• Handbook on Permeable Reactive Barriers Published

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• Landmark Book Published on the Fate of Contaminants in the Environment: Partition and Adsorption of Organic Contaminants in Environmental Systems

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• Parasite infection linked to amphibian malformations in the western United States

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• Glacial Ice Cores Reveal the History of Global Mercury Contamination

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• Three Program Scientists Make Environmental Science and Technology's Top Ten Papers

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• Scientists Discover Analog for Extraterrestrial Life in Idaho Hot Spring

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• What's in Our Wastewaters and Where Does it Go?

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• DNAPL Removal Key to Accelerated, Less Expensive Remediation

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• Mercury-Contaminated Fish--Is it Old or New Mercury?

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• New Paradigm for Fractured Rock Cleanup

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• Phosphorus Doesn't Migrate in Ground Water? Better Think Again!

2001

• Oil Wells Produce More Than Just Oil -- Environmental Impact of Produced Water

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• Using Oxygen to Clean Up Ground-Water Contamination

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• What Controls the Migration of Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Rock?

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• MTBE Can Degrade Naturally Without Oxygen

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• How do you Clean Up Gasoline Spills Naturally?

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• MTBE Biodegrades Naturally in Stream Sediments

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• The Atmosphere - A Potential Source of MTBE to Ground Water

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• USGS Info Guides Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone Action Plan

2000+

• Science of the Total Environment Special Issue on Agricultural Chemicals

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• Silver can Affect Fish Reproduction in San Francisco Bay

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• USGS Leads a National Study on Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

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• Nature's Way of Cleaning Up Mining-Contaminated Streams

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• Natural Attenuation for Groundwater Remediation

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• "Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry" Published

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• Measuring Pesticides and How They Transform in the Environment

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• Cleaning up Contamination in Hard Rock Mine Lands

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• Tracer Tests Steer Cleanup of Mined Watersheds

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• Management Practices a Factor in Herbicide Declines

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• Degradates: A Key to Assessing Herbicide Impacts in Streams

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• Where are the Pesticides?

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• Can a Sewage-Contaminated Aquifer Naturally Clean Itself?

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• USGS Studies Support Regulatory Guidance Documents

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• Natural Attenuation of MTBE at Laurel Bay, South Carolina