Colorado Water Science Center
Home
Welcome to the USGS Colorado Water Science Center! Please use these pages to explore the hydrologic data and scientific investigations we conduct on Colorado water resources.
Current Water Conditions
Explore real-time Colorado streamflow, groundwater, and water-quality conditions.
Current ConditionsScience Highlight
To better characterize the water supply capacity of Clear Creek Reservoir, a bathymetry survey was conducted. The methods used allowed water-resource managers to maintain typical reservoir operations and eliminate the need to empty the reservoir.
Learn moreNews
2019 USGS Unmanned Aircraft Systems Aquatic Airshow
A USGS Unmanned Aircraft Systems Aquatic Airshow field testing and demonstration event occurred 4/30/2019 - 5/2/2019 on the Saco River near Biddeford, and the Androscoggin River near Lewiston in Maine, USA.
Big Thompson Floods of 1976 and 2013 - A Visual Comparison
The Big Thompson Floods of 1976 and 2013 shown visually. The inundation images reflect the location and peak streamflows at certain points between Estes Park and Loveland, Colorado.
Media Advisory: Witness Groundbreaking River Measurements Collected from the Sky
This Thursday, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA will test new technologies near Parkdale, Colorado, located west of Cañon City, to better understand how unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, may be used to measure water depth, water levels and velocity from the sky.
Publications
Controls on spatial and temporal variations of brine discharge to the Dolores River in the Paradox Valley, Colorado, 2016–18
The Paradox Valley in southwestern Colorado is a collapsed anticline formed by movement of the salt-rich Paradox Formation at the core of the anticline. The salinity of the Dolores River, a tributary of the Colorado River, increases substantially as it crosses the valley because of discharge of brine-rich groundwater derived from the underlying...
Mast, M. Alisa; Terry, Neil
Streamflow gains and losses in New Fork and Green Rivers, upstream from Fontenelle Reservoir, Wyoming, October 2015
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative is a program created to implement a long-term, science-based program of assessing natural resources while facilitating responsible energy and other development and does studies in much of southwestern Wyoming, including all or parts of Lincoln, Sublette, Fremont, Sweetwater, and Carbon Counties. A...
Eddy-Miller, Cheryl A.; Davidson, Seth L.; Wheeler, Jerrod D.; Davis, Sarah J.; Stephens, J. Brooks; Campbell, James R.
Occurrence and sources of radium in groundwater associated with oil fields in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California
Geochemical data from 40 water wells were used to examine the occurrence and sources of radium (Ra) in groundwater associated with three oil fields in California (Fruitvale, Lost Hills, South Belridge). 226Ra+228Ra activities (range=0.010-0.51 Bq/L) exceeded the 0.185 Bq/L drinking-water standard in 18% of the wells (not drinking-water wells)....
McMahon, Peter B.; Avner Vengosh; Davis, Tracy; Landon, Matthew K.; Rebecca L. Tyne; Wright, Michael; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Hunt, Andrew G.; Peter H. Barry; A.J. Kondash; Z. Wang; Christopher J. Ballentine