California Water Science Center
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The U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science Center (CAWSC) provides reliable, impartial, foundational data and scientific analysis to address water issues facing California today. We conduct hydrologic monitoring and investigative studies in partnership with Federal, State, and local agencies to assist them in managing California's water resources.
Find out more about about CAWSC science programs and partnerships
Water Research Projects
Over 100 research projects addressing California's key water issues including: long-term water supply and availability, water quality, droughts and floods, climate change, aquatic ecology, the Delta, management of watersheds and groundwater.
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The USGS partners with local, state, and other federal agencies to provide scientific information needed by water-resources managers across the Nation.
Find out howCalifornia Water Data
Basic hydrologic data collection, processing, analysis, dissemination, and archiving are major parts of the California Water Science Center program.
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USGS Scientist to Discusses the Impacts of Agricultural Runoff in California’s Bay-Delta
Research Chemist, Dr. Michelle Hladik, presented her research on current-use pesticides being introduced into certain areas of California’s Bay-Delta ecosystem. Dr. Hladik’s presentation took place at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Annual...
The Ups and Downs of Groundwater Levels after the July 2019 Ridgecrest, CA Earthquakes
Effects from the two July 2019 Ridgecrest, CA earthquakes were observed in several USGS continuous groundwater-level monitoring sites in California, Nevada, and Arizona.
USGS Science at Work in the San Francisco Bay Estuary
In an article written for the Interagency Ecological Program for the San Francisco Estuary, Dr. Paul Work and Dr. Maureen Downing-Kunz, of the California Water Science Center, provide examples of the work being done to measure water flow and quality in the San Francisco Estuary.
Below is the article in its entirety.
Publications
Pesticide Mixtures in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, 2016–17: Results from Year 2 of the Delta Regional Monitoring Program
The Delta Regional Monitoring Program was developed by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in response to the decline of pelagic fish species in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta that was observed in the early 2000s. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Delta Regional Monitoring Program, has been responsible for...
De Parsia, Matthew; Woodward, Emily E.; Orlando, James L.; Hladik, Michelle L.
Observations of the spawning ecology of the imperiled Clear Lake Hitch Lavinia exilicauda chi
Migrations for the purposes of reproduction are widely documented across the animal kingdom and are particularly common in fishes and other aquatic organisms (Dingle 2014). One important migration strategy in fishes is potamodromy, which is the movement from one location to another entirely within freshwater (Morais and Daverat 2016). Thurow (...
Feyrer, Frederick
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
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...
Cain, Daniel J.; Thompson, Janet K.; Parchaso, Francis; Pearson, Sarah; Stewart, Robin; Turner, Matthew A.; Shrader, Kelly H.; Zierdt Smith, Emily L.; Luoma, Samuel N.