Streamflow, Groundwater, and Lakes

One of the strongest ways to ensure that science is done effectively and efficiently in the midst of ever decreasing budgets is to collaborate.

Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana Water Science Center is monitoring the effects of best management practices (BMP's) on baseflow and storm runoff in the Black Creek watershed near Harlan, IN. We will be sampling water-quality intensively for 5 years from overland field, subsurface tile, and in-stream runoff events. Results will be used to model the effectiveness of BMP’s in reducing nutrient and...

State and local agencies in Ohio (and to a limited extent, the USGS) collect, research, interpret, and disseminate groundwater data to characterize the groundwater resources of the State. To address these needs, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the Miami Conservancy District (MCD) monitor groundwater levels for more than 140 wells throughout Ohio. Personnel from the USGS Ohio...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservations Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have focused part of the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) on the School Branch watershed. The USGS is collaborating, through a Clean Water Act Section 319 grant, with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to accomplish NWQI nonpoint-source water-pollution...

Indiana and Kentucky scientists have produced new low-flow statistics for Indiana streams, specifically for 7-day, 10-year low flow (7Q10); 30-day, 10-year low flow (30Q10); 1-day, 10-year low flow (1Q10); and harmonic mean streamflow. The low-flow statistics are critical for the state of Indiana to administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program, watershed...

Eutrophication, or excess nutrients in streams, is typically one of the top reasons that a stream is listed as impaired on the 303(d) list as part of the Clean Water Act. How nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, are transported to streams and groundwater greatly affects the best management plan to keep them on fields and out of streams and groundwater. Likewise, environmental managers and...

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) is an interagency effort that seeks to accelerate ecosystem restoration in the Great Lakes by confronting threats to the region, such as nonpoint source pollution. Three Priority Watersheds have been targeted (Fox/Green Bay, Saginaw, and Maumee) and are characterized by having a high density of agricultural land use and have ecosystem impairments...

Data on low-flow characteristics are used by water-resource managers for a variety of purposes, including water-supply planning, making decisions about wastewater-discharge and water-withdrawal permits, and evaluating instream-flow requirements. The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center collects low-flow data throughout Ohio to expand the base of available information. The Ohio low-flow...

Arsenic is odorless and tasteless and can enter drinking-water supplies from natural deposits in rock and soil. In some parts of Ohio, arsenic concentrations in groundwater have exceeded the arsenic drinking-water standard of 10 parts per billion that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set to protect consumers from the effects of long-term, chronic exposure to arsenic(U.S. Environmental...

Sediment and nutrient runoff (nitrogen and phosphorus) from agricultural and urban land-use practices are of great concern in the Western Lake Erie Basin watersheds. Excessive nutrient inputs can lead to algal blooms that deplete the oxygen available to aquatic plants and animals. The blooms may result in cyanotoxins or cause taste and odor problems to public water supplies.

Our mission is provide the best quality stage and discharge information to our customers. The stage data along with discrete measurements are used to develop stage-discharge relationships thus inferring discharge.

The long-term goals of the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) and National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) programs are to describe the status and trends in the quality of a large representative part of the Nation's surface-water and groundwater resources and to provide a sound, scientific understanding of the primary factors affecting the quality of these resources. USGS Water...