Publications

The Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency within the Spokane River Basin of northern Idaho and eastern Washington included extensive data-collection activities to determine the nature and extent of trace-element contamination within the basin. The U.S. Geological Survey designed and implemented synoptic sampling of a high-flow...

Updated monthly and annual streamflow information for the many ungaged streams throughout Idaho is needed to assist planners and managers with issues regarding fish and wildlife, water rights, and other land and water uses. To provide this information, the U.S. Geological Survey used a multiple-regression analysis to develop equations for estimating daily mean discharge exceeded 80, 50...

Several studies over the past 6 years have indicated that elevated concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Spokane River, Washington, are a potential hazard to human and aquatic health. To help address these concerns, fish were collected from the Spokane River in 1999 and analyzed for PCBs for a cooperative study by the U.S. Geological Survey (as part of the National...

We analyzed the conservation status of 73 vegetation cover types distributed across a 1.76 million km2 region in 10 states of the western USA. We found that 25 vegetation cover types had at least 10% of their area in nature reserves. These were generally plant communities located at higher elevations and thus more commonly associated with national parks and wilderness areas. All but...

Macroinvertebrate assemblages and environmental variables were evaluated as part of the Idaho statewide surface-water quality monitoring program during 1996–98. Two assessment approaches were used to evaluate the macroinvertebrate data collected from Idaho rivers—biological metrics and multivariate statistical analyses. A total of 247 macroinvertebrate taxa were identified in...

Between September 1999 and March 2000, soil samples from the Fort Hall, Idaho, area were analyzed for two soil fumigants, 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-DCP) and sodium n-methyldithiocarbamate (metam-sodium), and their degradation products. Ground water is the only source of drinking water at Fort Hall, and the purpose of the investigation was to determine potential risk of ground-water...

Analyses of water samples collected from the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during 1991–1997 indicate that hundreds of metric tons of herbicides and herbicide metabolites are being discharged annually to the Gulf of Mexico. Atrazine, metolachlor, and the ethane-sulfonic acid metabolite of alachlor (alachlor ESA) were the most frequently detected herbicides and, in general...

Fish tissue and bed sediment samples were collected from 16 stream sites in the Northern Rockies Intermontane Basins study area in 1998 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Bed sediment samples were analyzed for 45 trace elements, and fish livers and sportfish fillets were analyzed for 22 elements to characterize the occurrence and distribution...

As ground water continues to provide an ever-growing proportion of Idaho?s drinking water, concerns about the quality of that resource are increasing. Pesticides (most commonly, atrazine/desethyl-atrazine, hereafter referred to as atrazine) and nitrite plus nitrate as nitrogen (hereafter referred to as nitrate) have been detected in many aquifers in the State. To provide a sound...

The Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency within the Spokane River Basin of northern Idaho and eastern Washington included extensive data-collection activities to determine the nature and extent of trace-element contamination within the basin. The U.S. Geological Survey designed and implemented synoptic sampling of the 1999...

In 1998 and 1999, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed comprehensive studies of nitrate concentrations in ground water in the Henrys Fork Basin in eastern Idaho (fig. 1A). These studies were done in cooperation with the following agencies or groups: Idaho Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), District 7 Health Department, Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR), Idaho...

One way to study Earth’s past environmental conditions is to look at ice cores recovered from glaciers. Every year a layer of snow accumulates on glaciers, like a page in a history book, and eventually turns to ice. Like reading the pages of a history book, analyzing the layers in a glacial ice core for specific chemical and physical components is a way of “reading” the environmental...