Data

The American Tunnel, the Black Hawk mine, the Gold King mine, the Mogul mine, and the Red and Bonita mine are located in the Cement Creek watershed, tributary to the upper Animas River near Silverton, Colorado. All five sites have tunnels that drain groundwater from abandoned underground mine workings to the surface. This draining water has elevated concentrations of metals and degrades...

In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a large-scale regional study of the Denver Basin aquifer system to evaluate the hydrologic effects of continued pumping and document an updated groundwater-flow model useful for appraisal of hydrologic conditions (Paschke, 2011). This data release includes spatial datasets used as input for a three-dimensional groundwater-flow model of the...

Near-surface geophysical surveys were conducted during March 2018 in an irrigated agricultural drainage near Delta, Colorado, locally know as Sunflower Drain. This data release presents results of two surveys, one using fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) and the second using a horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) passive seismic method. For the FO-DTS, a...

Native trout in the West suffer a high degree of vulnerability, as highlighted by cutthroat trout, a group of 14 subspecies, most of which have been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the Southern Rocky Mountains, greenback cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii stomias; GBCT) are listed as threatened under the ESA, and few populations remain, in part...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is actively investigating the use of innovative remote-sensing techniques to estimate surface velocity and discharge of rivers in ungaged basins and river reaches that lack the infrastructure to install conventional streamgaging equipment. By coupling discharge algorithms and sensors capable of measuring surface velocity, streamgage networks can be...

This dataset contains cross-section geometry and sediment-size data collected in the fall of 2019 from Muddy Creek and North Fork Gunnison River below Paonia Reservoir, western Colorado. Six cross sections were surveyed using Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (RTK-GNSS) methods to document channel geometry below Paonia Reservoir. One cross section was surveyed on...

The phenylpyrazole insecticide fipronil and its degradates are a potential surface-water contaminant and toxicant to nontarget species such as aquatic macroinvertebrates. To better understand how fipronil, fipronil sulfide, fipronil sulfone, desulfinyl fipronil, and fipronil amide affect aquatic communities, a 30-day mesocosm experiment was run. Rock trays were colonized with natural...

In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Upper Colorado River Wild and Scenic Stakeholder Group, studied the magnitude and frequency of streamflow needed to initiate bedload transport of gravel-sized and finer sediment on the Colorado River to maintain spawning habitat for fish and maintain substrate and interstitial spaces for benthic macroinvertebrates. Bedload...

Dataset includes the analysis results of 49 inorganic chemical elements bound to suspended-sediment particles below Paonia Reservoir during a sediment release in September 2017. Suspended-sediment samples were collected at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) station number 385626107212000 by following data collection procedures and protocols in Edwards and Glysson (1999). The samples were...

This data release contains environmental tracer concentrations, modeled recharge conditions (water temperature, excess air), and resulting estimated groundwater residence times. This dataset supports an integrated hydrogeochemical investigation of solute sources, groundwater recharge processes, and groundwater flow in the Fountain Creek alluvial aquifer. The data release contains five...

This data release supports the study by Sexstone and others (2020) and contains simulation output from SnowModel (Liston and Elder, 2006), a well-validated process-based snow modeling system. Simulations are for water years 1984 through 2017 (October 1, 1983 through September 30, 2017) across a 11,200 square kilometer model domain in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force Academy, carried out bathymetry surveys to characterize the water-supply capacity of Deadmans Lake; Golf Course Reservoir 9; Ice Lake; Kettle Lakes 1, 2, and 3; and Non-Potable reservoirs 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado in 2019. This data release includes: the elevation and volumes at...