Publications

In 1991, a water-quality investigation of the upper Snake River Basin was initiated as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. The initial task of the assessment was to compile and analyze available nutrient, suspended sediment, and pesticide data collected in the basin. For analysis of nutrients and suspended sediment, data collected during water

Water users rely on surface and ground water to irrigate crops and maintain wildlife refuges in the 2,200-square-mile Mud Lake study area. Water managers need the ability to evaluate the effects of water-use changes on the future supply of surface and ground water. A five-layer, three-dimensional, finite-difference, numerical ground-water flow model, calibrated to assumed 1980 steady...

Demand for ground water in the 600- square-mile Bruneau study area has increased since 1954 because of agricultural development. Declining flow at Indian Bathtub Spring is adversely affecting a unique species of snail that inhabits the spring. The Bruneau study area is underlain by sedimentary and volcanic rocks that form a regional geothermal aquifer. Sedimentary rocks range in...

Statistical summaries and graphs of streamflow data were prepared for 13 gaging stations with 5 or more years of continuous record on and near the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Statistical summaries of streamflow data for the Big and Little Lost Rivers and Birch Creek were analyzed as a requisite for a comprehensive evaluation of the potential for flooding of facilities at the...

Water users rely on surface water and ground water to irrigate crops and to maintain lakes on wildlife refuges in the 2,200-square-mile Mud Lake study area. Ground-water development between the late 1970's and 1989 increased withdrawals from about 240,000 acre-feet in 1983 to about 370,000 acre-feet in 1990. Concurrent with ground-water development, change from subirrigation to sprinkler

The Snake River Plain in southern Idaho is a major geologic structure of uncertain origin. Surface geology is generally well defined, but subsurface geology is poorly defined below about 500 feet. Rocks that underlie the plain form the framework for a regional ground-water system that supplies large quantities of water for irrigation and makes the plain nationally important in terms of

The occurrence and movement of water in the regional aquifer system that underlies the eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho, de- pend on the transmissivity and storage capacity of rocks that compose the geologic framework and on the distribution and amount of recharge and discharge of water within that frame- work. On a regional scale, most water moves horizontally through interflow zones in

Well information, results of test drilling, water-level measurements in observation wells, and chemical and isotopic constituents in ground-water samples were among the data collected as part of a study of the availability of ground water from the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer system in the Mud Lake area of eastern Idaho. Data from about 1,200 wells were stored in the National Water

The study area (see index map of Idaho), part of the Big Lost River drainage basin, is at the northern side of the eastern Snake River Plain. The lower Big Lost River Valley extends from the confluence of Antelope Creek and the Big Lost River to about 4 mi south of Arco and encompasses about 145 mi2 (see map showing water-level contours). The study area is about 18 mi long and, at its...

The study area is located in southern Elmore County, southwestern Idaho, and includes the Mountain Home Air Force Base located approximately 10 mi southwest of the city of Mountain Home. Chemical analyzes have been made periodically since the late 1940's on water samples from supply wells on the Air Force Base. These analyses indicate increases in specific conductance and in...

The vulnerability of ground water to contamination in Idaho is being assessed by the IDHW/DEQ (Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Division of Environmental Quality), using a modified version of the Environmental Orotection Agency DRASTIC methods (Allers and others, 1985). The project was designed as a technique to: (1) Assign priorities for development of ground-water management and

The vulnerability of ground water to contamination in Idaho is being assessed by the ISHW/DEQ (Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Division of Environmental Quality), using a modified version of the Environmental Protection Agency DRASTIC methods (Allers and others, 1985). The project was designed as a technique to: (1) Assign priorities for development of ground-water management and