Groundwater

The multidisciplinary research team is made up of scientists from research institutes, universities, National laboratories, and the USGS. The USGS co-leaders for the team are Brian J. Andraski (ADRS Coordinator, Nevada Water Science Center) and David A. Stonestrom (National Research Program, California).

The Amargosa Desert Research Site (ADRS), in the northern Mojave Desert, is about 20 km east of Death Valley National Park. Recognizing the paucity of information on unsaturated-zone hydrology in arid regions, the USGS, in 1983, established the ADRS through agreements with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the State of Nevada. The ADRS serves as a field laboratory for the study of arid-land...

In 1976, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began studies of unsaturated zone hydrology at a site in the Amargosa Desert near Beatty, Nevada, as part of the USGS Low-Level Radioactive Waste Program. The site is near disposal trenches for civilian waste. Over the years, USGS investigations at the Amargosa Desert Research Site (ADRS) have provided long-term "benchmark" information about the hydraulic...

The Nevada Water Science Center (NVWSC) is increasing the spatial understanding of the distribution of arsenic and important geochemical information in groundwater resources near select water-supply wells in southern Carson Valley by collecting groundwater samples to complement the existing dataset (2006 – 2015).

The USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Project (NAWQA) is now part of the USGS National Water-Quality Program (NWQP). NAWQA provides nationally consistent data and information on the quality of the Nation’s water. Studies provide information on current water-quality conditions, a baseline for trend evaluation, and an understanding of what factors affect water quality. Groundwater studies for...

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the process that transfers water from land surface to the atmosphere as evaporation (or sublimation when below freezing) from open water, soil, and plant canopies and as transpiration by plants. ET is measured by scientists for many different reasons. Hydrologists from the Nevada Water Scientist Center (NVWSC) typically measure ET to help quantify water budgets...

Minimal hydrologic data are available for the Black Rock National Conservation Area (BRNCA). USGS scientists collected baseline spring flow, groundwater level, and precipitation data to support concurrent ecological studies of perennial springs in the BRNCA by the Desert Research Institute. The collection of baseline hydrologic data is the initial step for determining how ecosystems in the BRNCA...

The Diamond Valley flow system (DVFS) consists of six basins or hydrographic areas (HAs) in central Nevada: southern and northern Monitor Valleys, Antelope Valley, Kobeh Valley, Stevens Basin, and Diamond Valley. The six basins are, in part, hydrologically connected by ephemeral streams, by groundwater flow in shallow basin-fill aquifers, and, possibly, by subsurface flow in deeper carbonate-rock...

The USGS conducted a study to evaluate the potential for groundwater discharge from sparsely vegetated areas in the Amargosa Desert. The study objectives were to: (1) compute groundwater discharge based on evapotranspiration and precipitation measurements at instrumented sites, and (2) improve understanding of hydrologic-continuum processes controlling groundwater discharge through analysis of...

Since the original publication of the Death Valley regional groundwater flow system (DVRFS) numerical model in 2004, more information on the regional groundwater flow system in the form of new data and interpretations has been compiled. Cooperators such as the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Energy, and Nye County, Nevada...

USGS scientists are characterizing hydraulic connectivity and bulk hydraulic properties of carbonate-rock and basin-fill aquifers in the vicinity of and downgradient from the Long Canyon Mine Project area in Goshute Valley, Nev., to better understand groundwater-flow paths and evaluate pumping effects on the hydrologic system. The Long Canyon Mine Project requires groundwater pumping from the...

The USGS Nevada Water Science Center began an investigation in 2010 to quantify hydrologic effects of groundwater withdrawals on Truckee River streamflow in the Tracy Segment hydrographic area, Storey, Washoe and Lyon Counties, Nevada. Groundwater gradients have been monitored at sites near pumping wells and the river. Water-level fluctuations resulting from local pumping are interpreted with flow...