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Publications

The following list of California Water Science Center publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists.

Filter Total Items: 1724

Comparative toxicity of two neonicotinoid insecticides at environmentally relevant concentrations to telecoprid dung beetles

Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) frequently traverse agricultural matrices in search of ephemeral dung resources and spend extended periods of time burrowing in soil. Neonicotinoids are among the most heavily applied and widely detected insecticides used in conventional agriculture with formulated products designed for row crop and livestock pest suppression. Here, we determined the compara
Authors
Michael C. Cavallaro, Michelle Hladik, Samantha Hittson, Greg Middleton, W. Wyatt Hoback

Natural and anthropogenic hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), in groundwater near a mapped plume, Hinkley, California

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley compressor station, in the Mojave Desert, 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California, is used to compress natural gas as it is transported through a pipeline from Texas to California. Between 1952 and 1964, cooling water was treated with a compound containing hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), to prevent corrosion of machinery within the compressor
Authors
John A. Izbicki, Krishangi D. Groover, Whitney A. Seymour, David M. Miller, John G. Warden, Laurence G. Miller

State of the science and decision support for measuring suspended sediment with acoustic instrumentation

Acoustic instrumentation can be used to provide time-series and discrete estimates of suspended-sediment concentration, load, and sediment particle sizes in fluvial systems, which are essential for creating informed solutions to many sediment-related environmental, engineering, and land management concerns. Historically, scientists have developed relations between suspended sediment characteristic
Authors
Molly S. Wood, Joel T. Groten, Timothy D. Straub, Dan R.W. Haught, Ronald E. Griffiths, Justin A. Boldt, Zulimar Lucena, Jeb E. Brown, Steven E. Suttles, Patrick J. Dickhudt

Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in Pennsylvania surface waters: A statewide assessment, associated sources, and land-use relations

The objectives of this study are to identify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Pennsylvania surface waters, corresponding associations with potential sources of PFAS contamination (PSOC) and other parameters, and compare raw surface water concentrations to human and ecological benchmarks. Surface water samples from 161 streams were collected in September 2019 and were analyzed for 33 t
Authors
Sara E. Breitmeyer, Amy Williams, Joseph W. Duris, Lee W. Eicholtz, Dustin R. Shull, Timothy A. Wertz, Emily Woodward

Heavy: Software for forward-modeling gravity change from MODFLOW output

Fortran software, named Heavy, was developed to simulate gravity change due to water-storage change in MODFLOW groundwater models. Heavy is compatible with MODFLOW-2005 and MODFLOW-NWT models using the layer-property flow or upstream weighting packages. All of the necessary information for the gravity calculation—the geometry of the model cells, the storage coefficient, and head change—is present
Authors
Jeffrey Kennedy, Joshua Larsen

Sediment transport in two tributaries to the San Joaquin River immediately below Friant Dam—Cottonwood Creek and Little Dry Creek, California

Two tributaries to the greater San Joaquin River watershed, Cottonwood and Little Dry Creeks, in California’s Central Valley, were assessed for sediment and streamflow dynamics between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2019. The two systems deliver sediment to the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam, California. Dams create downstream discontinuities in streamflow and sediment transport and theref
Authors
Dan R.W. Haught, Mathieu D. Marineau, Justin Toby Minear, Scott A. Wright, Joan V. Lopez

Summary and conclusions

Executive SummaryChromium concentrations in rock and aquifer material in Hinkley and Water Valleys in the Mojave Desert, 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California, are generally low compared to the average chromium concentration of 185 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) in the average bulk continental crust. Chromium concentrations in felsic, coarse-textured “Mojave-type” deposits, composed of Mo
Authors
John A. Izbicki, Krishangi D. Groover, Whitney A. Seymour, David M. Miller, John G. Warden, Laurence G. Miller

Sequestration and reoxidation of chromium in experimental microcosms

Groundwater containing hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), downgradient from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley compressor station in the Mojave Desert, 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California, is undergoing bioremediation using added ethanol as a reductant in a volume of the aquifer defined as the in situ reactive zone (IRZ). This treatment reduces Cr(VI) to trivalent chromium, Cr
Authors
Laurence G. Miller, Callum E. Bobb, Andrea L. Foster, Emily G. Wright, Stacy C. Bennett, Krishangi D. Groover, John A. Izbicki

Predevelopment water levels, groundwater recharge, and selected hydrologic properties of aquifer materials, Hinkley and Water Valleys, California

Hydrologic and geophysical data were collected to support updates to an existing groundwater-flow model of Hinkley Valley, California, in the Mojave Desert about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. These data provide information on predevelopment (pre-1930) water levels, groundwater recharge, and selected hydrologic properties of aquifer materials.A predevelopment groundwater-level map,
Authors
Krishangi D. Groover, John A. Izbicki, Whitney A. Seymour, Anthony A. Brown, Randall E. Bayless, Carole D. Johnson, Katherine L. Pappas, Gregory A. Smith, Dennis A. Clark, Joshua Larsen, Meghan C. Dick, Lorraine E. Flint, Christina L. Stamos, John G. Warden

Evaluation of natural and anthropogenic (human-made) hexavalent chromium

Hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), was released between 1952 and 1964 from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley compressor station, in the Mojave Desert about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. Geologic, geochemical, and hydrologic data from more than 100 wells collected between March 2015 and November 2017 were interpreted using a summative-scale analysis to define the extent
Authors
John A. Izbicki, John G. Warden, Krishangi D. Groover, Whitney A. Seymour

Environmental tracers of groundwater source, age, and geochemical evolution

Hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), was discharged in cooling wastewater to unlined surface ponds from 1952 to 1964 and reached the underlying unconsolidated aquifer at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley compressor station in the Mojave Desert, 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. A suite of environmental tracers was analyzed in water samples collected from more than 100 wells
Authors
John G. Warden, John A. Izbicki, Jürgen Sültenfuß, Kathleen Scheiderich, John Fitzpatrick

Groundwater chemistry and hexavalent chromium

Water samples collected by the U.S. Geological Survey from more than 100 wells between March 2015 and November 2017 in Hinkley and Water Valleys, in the Mojave Desert 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California, were analyzed for field parameters, major ions, nutrients, and selected trace elements, including hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI). Water from most wells was alkaline and oxic. The pH ranged
Authors
John A. Izbicki, R. Blaine McCleskey, Carmen A. Burton, Dennis A. Clark, Gregory A. Smith