New England Water Science Center Projects

Below normal streamflows can intensify competing water demands and affect water quality, drinking-water supplies, and aquatic habitat. Estimating normal low-flow statistics is critical to support natural resource management. The current methods for estimating low-flow statistics at ungaged streams, particularly on small watersheds, are limited in Vermont. The USGS is computing low-flow statistics...

USGS, in cooperation with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, is evaluating machine learning models for predicting blooms of potentially harmful cyanobacteria, a damaging blue-green algae, at Lake Champlain beaches in Vermont and New York. Harmful cyanobacterial algal blooms (cyanoHABs) degrade the water quality of Lake Champlain and can threaten environmental and public health because the lake...

The New England Water Science Center applies landscape science to understand water-resource challenges at the scales where decisions are made—from a local stream or aquifer to an entire watershed, river basin, or region. We combine long-term monitoring, field studies, laboratory analysis, mapping, modeling, and data delivery. By linking hydrologic, water-quality, ecological, climate, and land-use...

Harmful algal blooms (HABs), fish kills, and shellfish contamination are increasingly affecting coastal estuaries like the Norwalk River. Understanding the microscopic algae responsible for these events is essential for protecting public health, local economies, and marine ecosystems. As the environmental conditions of estuaries continue to change from nutrient enrichment, warming temperatures...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), is developing a web-based tool to visualize flood data in Massachusetts. Climate projections, including those derived from the Climate and Hydrologic Risk Project, are being incorporated into new and existing flood models in pilot areas distributed across the...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is updating a planning-level support tool to help decision makers estimate daily mean streamflows and selected streamflow statistics to assess sustainable water use across the state of Connecticut.

The New England Water Conditions Explorer provides interactive maps showing current surface water and groundwater conditions in the context of historical data.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS), is using airborne thermal infrared remote sensing to characterize cold-water habitat for the federally designated endangered species Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar) and wild brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis) in the East Branch of the Penobscot River system within Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (CT DECD) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is investigating the occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soils and shallow groundwater across the state of Connecticut. The studies...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates high‑resolution, continuous water‑quality monitoring stations in estuaries across coastal Massachusetts to better understand these dynamic ecosystems. These efforts include collaborations with the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership (MassBays) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to support Clean Water Act...

Possible changes in temperature and precipitation over the next several decades may have implications for New England’s agricultural community, such as changing plant water availability and crop yield variability. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Maine, is predicting the potential hydrological effects based on these climatic...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS), is using thermal infrared technology to identify cold-water habitat for brook trout and other cold-water species in the upper Namekagon River in Wisconsin. The upper Namekagon River and its tributaries have long served as a stronghold for brook trout and other cold- and cool-water species; however, changing...

The Hydrologic Monitoring Branch (HMB) provides water data for all six New England states through an expansive network of monitoring locations. The HMB is responsible for a wide range of hydrologic monitoring activities, including collecting and analyzing streamflow, groundwater and coastal water levels, precipitation, and continuous water-quality information, such as water temperature and...

The Applied Hydrology Branch provides hydrologic data, research, and tools to water resource managers, stakeholders and policy makers that inform critical water management decisions throughout New England. This branch is divided into the Hydrology and Hydraulics Section, Water Quality Networks Section, Connecticut Water Quality Monitoring Section, and Massachusetts/Rhode Island Water Quality...

The Hydrologic Interpretive Branch collaborates with stakeholders to design, execute, and publish scientific studies that address issues associated with water resources at local, regional, and national scales. This branch has three sections that focus on watershed and urban hydrology, integrated modeling of hydrologic systems, and the development of new statistical and geospatial tools.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Water Utility Resilience Program (WURP), is assisting public water and wastewater utilities in transitioning their service infrastructure data to geographic information systems (GIS) and updating related statewide datasets and data visualization tools. Improving access to...

Onsite residential septic systems can be a major nonpoint source of nitrogen contamination. The excess nitrogen entering Connecticut’s Niantic River estuary is associated with high nitrate concentrations in the groundwater of the river’s 28-square-mile watershed, creating unsuitable habitat for the growth and recovery of eelgrass (Zostera marina). In an attempt to improve the river’s water quality...

A look at what USGS water science centers do and the New England Water Science Center's current areas of focus and research.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, is investigating the relationship between onsite wastewater treatment systems and nitrogen loads in water bodies in the Narragansett Bay watershed in Rhode Island.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Southeast New England Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is estimating the magnitude, spatial distribution, and travel times of nitrogen-loading to ponds and streams in the Salt Ponds region of southern Rhode Island. This information can be used to guide conservation-management efforts aimed at reducing nitrogen inputs to...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Town of Falmouth, is simulating the potential effects of proposed changes to wastewater return flow on the freshwater system in Falmouth, Massachusetts, using an existing regional groundwater flow model.