Streams and Lakes

The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center assessed salinity of the Pecos River Basin from Santa Rosa Lake, New Mexico to the confluence of Pecos River and Rio Grande, Texas. This assessment included an extensive literature review, compilation of previously published salinity related data, data gap analysis, additional data collection to fill data gaps, and identification of potential areas of...

In 2014, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began sponsorship of the InFRM team initiative to allow Federal teams across the States of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas to better align and integrate. Currently, the InFRM team is comprised of FEMA, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Geological Survey, and the National Weather Service. Information about the Interagency...

Streamer is an online mapping application for exploring downstream and upstream along America’s rivers and streams. Since Streamer was first released in 2013, scientists, water managers, students, and citizens have used Streamer extensively. The mobile friendly version takes most of the features from the desktop version and packages them into an intuitive, easy-to-use format on a smartphone or...

Real-time water-quality, streamflow and water height information for Lake Houston and the surrounding San Jacinto watershed are now available from a new web application from the U.S. Geological Survey, done in cooperation with the City of Houston.

The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center is evaluating the water-quality effects of certain herbicides used in Arundo cane eradication along the Rio Grande from Del Rio downstream to the confluence with Sycamore Creek (approximately 10 miles), along which the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) will be conducting cane eradication using herbicides.

USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water use, availability, and change in the Upper Rio Grande Basin in one of several national “Focus Area Studies” in the Department of Interior’s WaterSMART initiative. The Upper Rio Grande study area runs 670 miles from its headwaters in Colorado through New Mexico and northern Mexico to Ft. Quitman, Texas. Along its river corridor, it is a primary source of...

The effects of urbanization across the recharge zone in Bexar County and potential impact on the water quality in the Edwards aquifer is a topic of specific concern for the City of San Antonio. The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center is simultaneously collecting water-quality data from surface-water runoff sites and paired shallow groundwater wells within the recharge zone of the Edwards...

The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center (OTWSC) is completing a geophysical pilot study adjacent to Hamilton Creek in Burnet County, central Texas. The pilot study is intended to test whether electrical geophysical methods can provide information regarding the locations of dissolution cavities and preferential groundwater flow within in the Ellenburger San-Saba aquifer. Data from this study...

During 2011-2013, baseline concentrations of many different water and streambed-sediment constituents were determined at Phase I sites upstream from, within, and downstream from the area of active oil and natural-gas production within the San Antonio River Basin. With baseline conditions previously established, this study will provide current information that couples recent water and stream-bed...

The USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water use, availability, and change in the Red River basin in one of several national “Focus Area Studies” in the Department of Interior’s WaterSMART initiative . The Red River basin covers more than 93,000 square miles in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana with a population of about 4.3 million people. Water resources in the basin are...

The USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project was established by Congress in 1992 to answer the following question: What is the status of the Nation’s water quality and is it getting better or worse? Since 1992, NAWQA has been a primary source of nationally consistent data and information on the quality of the Nation’s streams and groundwater. Data and information obtained from...

The San Jacinto River is the second largest inflow into Galveston Bay. The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center collects water-quality samples in the lower reaches of the San Jacinto River over a range of hydrologic conditions to improve our understanding of the variability of nutrient and sediment concentrations in freshwater inflows from the San Jacinto River into Galveston Bay.