Publications

A plume of ethylene dibromide (EDB) dissolved in groundwater extends northeast from the Bulk Fuels Facility on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. The leading edge of the EDB plume is upgradient from several water-supply wells. In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the U.S. Air Force, installed four...

In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey started a topical study to quantify water use in areas of continuous oil and gas (COG) development. The first phase of the study was completed in 2019 and analyzed the Williston Basin. The second phase of the study analyzed the Permian Basin using the same techniques and approaches used for the Williston Basin analysis. The Permian Basin was selected...

In this paper, we present an analysis using unsupervised machine learning (ML) to identify the key geologic factors that contribute to the geothermal production in Brady geothermal field. Brady is a hydrothermal system in northwestern Nevada that supports both electricity production and direct use of hydrothermal fluids. Transmissive fluid-flow pathways are relatively rare in the...

The Albuquerque Basin, located in central New Mexico, is about 100 miles long and 25–40 miles wide. The basin is hydrologically defined as the extent of consolidated and unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that encompasses the structural Rio Grande Rift between San Acacia to the south and Cochiti Lake to the north. A 20-percent population increase in the basin from...

Pesticides occur in urban streams globally, but the relation of occurrence to urbanization can be obscured by regional differences. In studies of five regions of the United States, we investigated the effect of region and urbanization on the occurrence and potential toxicity of dissolved pesticide mixtures. We analyzed 225 pesticide compounds in weekly discrete water samples collected...

In many hydrothermal systems, fracture permeability along faults provides pathways for groundwater to transport heat from depth. Faulting generates a range of deformation styles that cross-cut heterogeneous geology, resulting in complex patterns of permeability, porosity, and hydraulic conductivity. Vertical connectivity (a throughgoing network of permeable areas that allows advection of...

No abstract available.

In an area of elevated nitrate (NO3) groundwater concentrations in the northern Chihuahuan Desert in central New Mexico (United States), a large reservoir of nitrate was found in the subsoil of an arroyo floodplain. Nitrate inventories in the floodplain subsoils ranged from 10,000 to 38,000 kg NO3-N/ha—over twice as high as any previously measured arid region. The floodplain subsoil NO3...

The U.S. Geological Survey is performing a pre-assessment of the cooling potential for reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) in five generalized geologic regions (Basin and Range, Coastal Plains, Illinois Basin, Michigan Basin, Pacific Northwest) across the United States. Reservoir models are developed for the metropolitan areas of eight cities (Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charleston...

Streamflow records available before and after wildfire in a small, mixed conifer, sub-alpine monsoonal dominated watershed in New Mexico provided a unique opportunity to calibrate a watershed model (PRMS) for pre- and postfire conditions. The calibrated model was then used to simulate the hydrologic effects of fire. Simulated postfire surface runoff averaged 14.7 times greater than...

A significantly elevated groundwater salinity zone was identified in the southern part of the Mesilla Valley. This investigation characterized the occurrence, spatial extent, and source of the plume of elevated groundwater salinity using a wide range of geochemical and geophysical data and methods.