Publications
South Atlantic Water Science Center scientists have produced over 1,300 publications that are registered in the USGS Publications Warehouse, along with many others prior to their work at the USGS or in conjunction with other government agencies. Journal articles and conference proceedings are also available.
Filter Total Items: 1563
Tapwater exposures, residential risk, and mitigation in a PFAS-impacted-groundwater community
Tapwater (TW) safety and sustainability are priorities in the United States. Per/polyfluoroalkyl substance(s) (PFAS) contamination is a growing public-health concern due to prolific use, widespread TW exposures, and mounting human-health concerns. Historically-rural, actively-urbanizing communities that rely on surficial-aquifer private wells incur elevated risks of unrecognized TW...
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Kristin Romanok, Kelly Smalling, Lee Donahue, Mark P. Gaikowski, Randy K. Hines, Sara E. Breitmeyer, Stephanie Gordon, Keith Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Shannon M. Meppelink, Molly L. Schreiner
Statewide cumulative human health risk assessment of inorganics-contaminated groundwater wells, Montana, USA
Across the United States, rural residents rely on unregulated and generally unmonitored private wells for drinking water, which may pose serious health risks due to unrecognized contaminants. We assessed the nature, degree, and spatial distribution of cumulative health risks from inorganic contaminants in groundwater. Our analysis included nearly 84,000 data points from 6500+ wells...
Authors
Margaret J. Eggers, W. Adam Sigler, Nicklas Kiekover, Paul M. Bradley, Kelly Smalling, Albert J. Parker, Robert K.D. Peterson, John LaFave
Ecohydrological response of a forested headwater catchment to a flash drought in the Southeastern U.S.
Flash droughts differ from traditionally defined droughts in their rapidity of intensification and often associated high vapor-pressure deficit. These droughts can lead to declines in streamflow and water table depth and induce water stress to vegetation at a greater rate than droughts that manifest over longer periods. However, little is known regarding the response of forested...
Authors
Jeffrey W. Riley, Luke A. Pangle, Michael Forster, Brent T. Aulenbach
Integrated Hydro-terrestrial Modeling 2.0: Progress and path forward on building a national capability
Growing societal pressures on U.S. water resources and the challenges inherent in understanding how future water risks may evolve are driving major investments to improve our knowledge of the integrated water cycle. This improved understanding as captured in innovations in our data, knowledge, and modeling capabilities, needs to be accelerated through better integration and coordination...
Authors
Katherine Skalak, Nathalie Voisin, Patrick Read, Ying Fan Reinfelder
Public, bottled, and private drinking water: Shared contaminant-mixture exposures and effects challenge
BACKGROUND: Humans are primary drivers of environmental contaminant exposures worldwide, including in drinking-water (DW). In the United States (US), point-of-use DW (POU DW) is supplied via private tapwater (TW, predominantly private wells), public-supply TW, and bottled water (BW). Differences in management, monitoring, and messaging and lack of directly intercomparable exposure data...
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Kristin Romanok, Kelly Smalling, Stephanie Gordon, Bradley J. Huffman, Katie Paul Friedman, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Brett Blackwell, Suzanne C. Fitzpatrick, Michael J. Focazio, Elizabeth Medlock-Kakaley, Shannon M. Meppelink, Ana Navas-Acien, Anne E. Nigra, Molly L. Schreiner
Assessment of fresh groundwater discharge and saline surface-water intrusion at Operable Unit 2, North Chevalier Field Disposal Area (Site 11), Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, 2018–22
Site 11 is a former landfill at North Chevalier Field Disposal Area in Operable Unit 2 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in northwest Florida. Site 11 is adjacent to Bayou Grande, a shallow, tidally influenced, saline estuary of the Pensacola Bay watershed. Federal and Florida regulators have expressed concern that contaminants detected in groundwater beneath the inland parts of Site 11...
Authors
James Landmeyer, W. Scott McBride, Chad H. Tripp, Michael A. Singletary
Groundwater quality and groundwater levels in Dougherty County, Georgia, April 2020 through January 2023
The Upper Floridan aquifer is the uppermost reliable groundwater source in southwest Georgia. The aquifer lies on top of the Claiborne, Clayton, and Cretaceous aquifers, all of which exhibited water-level declines in the 1960s and 1970s. The U.S. Geological Survey has been working cooperatively with Albany Utilities to monitor groundwater quality and availability in these aquifers since...
Authors
Debbie W. Gordon
Predictive modeling reveals elevated conductivity relative to background levels in freshwater tributaries within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA
Elevated conductivity (i.e., specific conductance or SC) causes osmotic stress in freshwater aquatic organisms and may increase the toxicity of some contaminants. Indices of benthic macroinvertebrate integrity have declined in urban areas across the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), and more information is needed about whether these declines may be due to elevated conductivity. A...
Authors
Rosemary M. Fanelli, Joel Moore, Charles C. Stillwell, Andrew J. Sekellick, Richard H Walker
Predictions of groundwater PFAS occurrence at drinking water supply depths in the United States
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known colloquially as “forever chemicals”, have been associated with adverse human health effects and have contaminated drinking water supplies across the United States owing to their long-term and widespread use. People in the United States may unknowingly be drinking water that contains PFAS because of a lack of systematic analysis...
Authors
Andrea K. Tokranov, Katherine Marie Ransom, Laura M. Bexfield, Bruce Lindsey, Elise Watson, Danielle Dupuy, Paul E. Stackelberg, Miranda Fram, Stefan Voss, James A. Kingsbury, Bryant Jurgens, Kelly Smalling, Paul M. Bradley
State of science, gap analysis, and prioritization for southeastern United States water-quality impacts from coastal storms—Fiscal year 2023 program report to the Water Resources Mission Area from the Water Availability Impacts of Extreme Events Program—H
Tropical cyclones (coastal storm events that include tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes) cause landscape-scale disturbances that can lead to impaired water quality and thus reduce water availability for use. Stakeholders and scientists at local and national scales have illustrated a need for understanding these risks to water quality. A regional and comprehensive...
Authors
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Tara L. Root, Matthew D. Petkewich, MaryLynn Musgrove, Amy C. Gill, J. N. Weaver, Christopher Conaway, Bruce Lindsey, Francis Parchaso, Noah Knowles, Elizabeth J. Tomaszewski
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water in Southeast Los Angeles: Industrial legacy and environmental justice
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent chemicals of increasing concern to human health. PFAS contamination in water systems has been linked to a variety of sources including hydrocarbon fire suppression activities, industrial and military land uses, agricultural applications of biosolids, and consumer products. To assess PFAS in California tap water, we collected 60...
Authors
Julie Von Behren, Peggy Reynolds, Paul M. Bradley, James L. Gray, Dana W. Kolpin, Kristin Romanok, Kelly Smalling, Catherine Carpenter, Wendy Avila, Paul B. English, Rena R. Jones, Gina M. Solomon
Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project, North Carolina
IntroductionRivers and surface-water reservoirs supply drinking water to most residents throughout the Triangle area in North Carolina. These drinking-water supplies may be at risk because of rapid and continued land use change throughout the region. In partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, several Triangle-area municipalities established a long-term water-quality and streamflow...
Authors
Rosemary M. Fanelli, D. Hardesty, Jessica L. Cain