Oregon Water Science Center
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Welcome to the USGS in Oregon. Our mission is to explore the natural world around us and provide reliable scientific information to help Federal, State, and local agencies, Tribes, and the public make well-informed decisions. Our research is widely used to manage Oregon's water resources for the benefit and safety of people and the environment.
Current Stream Conditions
See what is happening in streams near you. View real-time stream data for streams around Oregon.
View DataWeekly Science Seminar
Our lunchtime seminars are held Tuesdays from 12pm to 1 pm and are open to the public.
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USGS uses watershed modeling to assess surface-water nutrient impairment across the Pacific Northwest and California
The region-wide, reach-scale results from a new study provide two new tools that might help water-quality managers. One is an estimate of the total contribution from point and diffuse sources to the loads delivered to nutrient-impaired water bodies. The other is a method to assess potential nutrient impairment based on estimated warm-weather dissolved oxygen and pH conditions.
USGS Releases Groundwater-Level Contour Maps for the Harney Basin, Oregon
Groundwater-level contour maps from a groundwater-availability study of the Harney Basin are now available. These results are important for understanding the status of groundwater resources in the basin and how they might respond to future demand.
PSU-USGS study improves the understanding of how pesticides are transported within Oregon coastal watersheds
The results from this study provide insights into the effectiveness of current forest management practices in controlling the transport of forest-use pesticides.
Publications
Using regional watershed data to assess water-quality impairment in the Pacific Drainages of the United States
Two datasets containing the first complete estimates of reach-scale nutrient, water use, dissolved oxygen, and pH conditions for the Pacific drainages of the United States were created to help inform water-quality management decisions in that region. The datasets were developed using easily obtainable watershed data, most of which have not been...
Wise, Daniel R.
Seasonally dynamic nutrient modeling quantifies storage lags and time-varying reactivity across large river basins
Nutrients that have gradually accumulated in soils, groundwaters, and river sediments in the United States over the past century can remobilize and increase current downstream loading, obscuring effects of conservation practices aimed at protecting water resources. Drivers of storage accumulation and release of nutrients are poorly understood at...
Schmadel, Noah; Harvey, Judson; Schwarz, Gregory E. Climate impacts on source contributions and evaporation to flow in the Snake River Basin using surface water isoscapes (δ2H and δ18O)
Rising global temperatures are expected to decrease the precipitation amount that falls as snow, causing greater risk of water scarcity, groundwater overdraft, and fire in areas that rely on mountain snowpack for their water supply. Streamflow in large river basins varies with the amount, timing, and type of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and...
Windler, Grace; Brooks, J. Renée; Johnson, Henry M.; Comeleo, Randy; Coulombe, Rob; Bowen, Gabriel J.