Water Quality
Water Quality
Our surface water, groundwater, and aquatic ecosystems are priceless resources, used by people across the Nation for drinking, irrigation, industry, and recreation.
Filter Total Items: 127
Evaluation of water resources in Chuckwalla Valley, Riverside County, California
The Chuckwalla Valley in the southern Mojave Desert in California has been selected as an area with high potential for solar energy development. Six large-scale solar energy projects are currently approved or proposed in this basin, the largest number of solar projects in any one basin in California. Water needs associated with proposed solar energy projects within the basin have generated...
Technical Support to the U.S. EPA for Leviathan Mine, Alpine County, California
The Leviathan Mine, located in Alpine County is one of the worst sites in California for acid mine drainage. The site is on the National Priority List for CERCLA (Superfund) (U.S. EPA, 2011) and U.S. EPA is working with ARCO/BP (the Responsible Party) on designing and implementing site remediation. The USGS did research there during the 1980s on geochemistry (e.g., Nordstrom and Ball, 1986). The...
Optimization of Operation of Yuma Area Drainage and Regulatory Wells - Pilot Project
Reclamation's Yuma Area Office (YAO) operates 50 plus drainage wells and 21 regulatory wells to control groundwater levels in low-lying flood plain areas and to supply a significant portion of the Colorado River water the United States (US) is required by treaty to deliver to Mexico.
Determining the fate and transport of septic-tank effluent in the southern area of Warren subbasin, California
Residents and businesses in Yucca Valley, CA rely currently on septic tanks to treat their wastewater. The local water district, Hi-Desert Water District (HDWD), is planning to construct a sewer system and wastewater treatment plant, initially serving the West, Midwest, Mideast, Northeast, and East hydrogeologic units of the Warren subbasin.
Sonoma Valley Surface Water/Groundwater-Flow Model
Sonoma County faces potential changes in surface-water availability, including potential impacts on water quality in response to changing land use, increasing population, and climate change.
Water-Level, Water-Quality and Land-Subsidence Studies in the Mojave River and Morongo Groundwater Basins
Groundwater has been the primary source of domestic, agricultural, and municipal water supplies in the southwestern Mojave Desert, California, since the early 1900s. The population of the Mojave River and Morongo groundwater basins has grown rapidly during the last several decades, increasing from an estimated population of almost 273,000 in 1990 (Mojave Water Agency, 2004) to more than 453,000 in...
Pesticide Studies in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay Estuary
The objectives of this specific study are to characterize the mixtures of current-use pesticides and pesticide degradates entering the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta from its two main river sources over a period of 12 consecutive months.
Understanding Juvenile Salmon Entrainment and Survival in the South Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta Through the Use of Acoustic Telemetry and Hydrodynamic Measurements
This study will use the release-recapture information derived from the 2012 receiver array to populate a mark-recapture model based on a Cormack-Jolly-Seber model in combination with a route-specific survival model of Skalski et al. (2002) to derive maximum likelihood estimates and standard errors of reach specific survival and entrainment rates at important junctions, similar to what was used in...
Delta sediment measurements to support numerical modeling of turbidity
The purpose of the proposed work is to collect data that will support the development, calibration, and validation of numerical models of sediment transport and turbidity in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Assessing the Feasibility of Artificial Recharge and Storage and the Effectiveness and Sustainability of Insitu Arsenic Removal in the Antelope Valley, California
Project Update - 8/2/2011: Water having an arsenic concentration of 30 micrograms per liter was infiltrated from a test pond beginning in December, 2010. After water moved downward through the unsaturated zone, arsenic concentrations in Lysimeters as deep as 110 ft beneath the pond were about 2 micrograms per liter. Laboratory column experiments show similar changes in arsenic concentrations in...
Additional characterization of the impact of suction dredging, South Yuba River – Humbug Creek
The potential impacts of suction dredging on water quality remain largely undetermined, especially with regard to trace metals including Hg. Several State of California regulatory agencies have expressed concerns that suction dredging may cause deleterious impacts with regard to turbidity and Hg contamination in downstream areas.
Determination of Mercury Loads for Cache Creek Settling Basin Inflow and Outflows and Related Investigations
Mercury (Hg), a legacy pollutant from mining of mercury deposits in the Coast Ranges as well as gold deposits in the Sierra Nevada, has contaminated surface waters throughout northern California. Methylmercury (MeHg) is an organic form of Hg that bioaccumulates in food webs to elevated concentrations that threaten ecological health and human health through consumption of sport fish.