Publications

Draft Federal regulations may require that each State develop a State Pesticide Management Plan for the herbicides atrazine, alachlor, cyanazine, metolachlor, and simazine. This study developed maps that the Idaho State Department of Agriculture might use to predict the probability of detecting atrazine and desethyl-atrazine (a breakdown product of atrazine) in ground water in the Idaho...

Numerous environmental studies have been conducted in the Spokane River Basin over the past several decades by government agencies, academic institutions, and environmental engineering firms. Most of these efforts have focused on the environmental effects of more than a century of silver, lead, and zinc mining and oreprocessing activities in the South Fork Coeur d'Alene River valley in...

In 1990, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality (formerly Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Division of Environmental Quality), implemented a statewide water- quality monitoring program in response to Idaho’s antidegradation policy as required by the Clean Water Act (CWA). The objective was to provide water-quality...

In October 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality, Boise Regional Office (IDEQ-BRO), began a comprehensive study of ground-water quality in the lower Boise River Basin. The study in northern Ada County has been completed, and this report presents selected results of investigations in that area. Results and discussion...

This report summarizes work carried out in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation to provide hydrologic information to help Federal, State, and local agencies meet the goals of the Lemhi River Model Watershed Project. The primary goal of the project is to maintain, enhance, and restore anadromous and resident fish habitat in the Lemhi River, while maintaining a balance between...

Agricultural land and water use, wastewater treatment facility discharges, land development, road construction, urban runoff, confined-animal feeding operations, reservoir operations, and river channelization affect the water quality and biotic integrity of the lower Boise River between Lucky Peak Dam and the river's mouth at Parma, Idaho. During May 1994 through February 1997, 4 sites...

Methods for estimating daily mean discharges for selected flow durations and flood discharge for selected recurrence intervals at ungaged sites in central Idaho were applied using data collected at streamflow-gaging stations in the area. The areal and seasonal variability of discharge from ungaged drainage basins may be described by estimating daily mean discharges that are exceeded 20...

A water-quality investigation of the upper Snake River Basin began in 1991 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water- Quality Assessment Program. As part of the investigation, intensive monitoring was conducted during water years 1993 through 1995 to assess surface-water quality in the basin. Sampling and analysis focused on nutrients, suspended sediments, and pesticides...

for almost a century, the U.S. Geological Survey has collected hydrologic data at a network of stream-gaging stations throughout the Coeur d'Alene Lake and River drainage basin. Since 1990, extensive water-quality data have been collected for a comprehensive study of potential eutrophication of Coeur d'Alene Lake and for assessment of the environmental effects of past mining and ore...

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program in the upper Snake River Basin study unit, land- and water-use data were used to describe activities that have potential effects on water quality, including biological conditions, in the basin. Land-use maps and estimates of water use by irrigated agriculture were needed for Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, and

Fish-tissue and bed-sediment samples were collected from 20 sites in the upper Snake River Basin in Idaho and western Wyoming as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program to determine the occurrence and distribution of organochlorine compounds. During 1992-94, 41 samples were analyzed for 28 different organochlorine compounds in whole-fish tissue and 32 compounds in bed...

Fish assemblages and environmental variables were evaluated for 30 first- through seventh-order streams in the upper Snake River Basin, Idaho and western Wyoming. Data were collected as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program to characterize aquatic biota and associated habitats in surface water. Sampling sites represented major stream types in the basin large river