Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey began full-scale implementation of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program in 1991. The purposes of NAWQA are to describe the status and trends in the quality of the Nation's water resources and aquatic ecosystems, and to determine factors affecting water quality at local, regional, and national scales. The Upper Mississippi River (UMIS) NAWQA...

The quality of runoff from residential lawns is a concern for municipal stormwater management programs. Land-use based computer models are increasingly being used to assess the impact of lawn runoff on urban watersheds. To accurately model the runoff for residential lawns, the variation in the relation of rainfall to runoff from lawns must be understood. The study described in this...

Late Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks form part of a regional system of aquifers and confining units in the central Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The upper part of the Pennsylvanian rock sequence constitutes the Saginaw aquifer, which consists primarily of sandstone. This sandstone aquifer overlies the Saginaw confining unit, which consists primarily of shale. The Saginaw...

Physical and aquatic biological conditions differ among the Mississippi River and its major tributaries (the St. Croix and Minnesota Rivers) in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The quality of surface water and the ecological condition of rivers affect the ways in which we use them. The St. Croix River is used for recreation; the Mississippi River is used for recreation and is a corridor for...

Data that describe the physical characteristics of stream subbasins upstream from selected sites on streams in the Hawk Creek-Yellow Medicine River Basin, located in southwestern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota are presented in this report. The physical characteristics are the drainage area of the subbasin, the percentage area of the subbasin covered only by lakes, the percentage area...

For more than 100 years, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has provided earth-science information on which managers, scientists, and other interested citizens base decisions regarding Michigan’s natural resources and natural hazards. The non-regulatory and scientific nature of the USGS work ensures that our products are technically sound, unbiased, and equally accessible and...

Laboratory studies were conducted with five early life stages of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, to determine the acute toxicities of five fire-fighting chemical formulations in standardized soft and hard water. Eyed egg, embryo–larvae, swim-up fry, and 60- and 90-d posthatch juveniles were exposed to three fire retardants (Fire-Trol LCG-R, Fire-Trol GTS-R, and Phos-Chek D75-F) and...

Laboratory studies were conducted with four early life stages of fathead minnow,Pimephales promelas,to determine the acute toxicity of five firefighting chemical formulations in standardized soft and hard water. Egg, fry, 30-day posthatch, and 60-day posthatch life stages were tested with three fire retardants (Fire-Trol GTS-R, Fire-Trol LCG-R, and Phos-Chek D75-F) and two fire...

Hepatic cytochrome P450-associated monooxygenase activities were measured in 11-d-old nestling black-crowned night-herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) collected from a reference site (next to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, VA, USA) and three contaminated sites (Cat Island, Green Bay, WI, USA; Bair Island, San Francisco Bay, CA, USA; and West Marin Island, San Francisco Bay, CA, USA)

Maps showing predevelopment freshwater heads were developed for the major aquifers in the Michigan Basin. The Michigan Basin is an isolated, regional ground-water-flow system consisting of a glaciofluvial aquifer and three bedrock aquifers separated by confining units. The bedrock aquifers investigated are the Saginaw, Parma-Bayport, and Marshall aquifers. Fractured sandstones within the...

This map report describes the sampling design for a comprehensive regional assessment of water quality in the Red River of the North Basin, a study unit under the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program. The sampling design was developed to address questions about the presence, distribution, and loads of nutrients and pesticides associated with large...

Government agencies, academic institutions, and volunteer monitoring groups in the State of Wisconsin collect aquatic macroinvertebrate data to assess water quality. Sampling methods differ among agencies, reflecting the differences in the sampling objectives of each agency. Lack of infor- mation about data comparability impedes data shar- ing among agencies, which can result in...