Images

Sample of dragonfly larvae in water in bottom of zip-lock plastic bag, held at horizon level with lake. At Sand Point Lake in Voyageurs National Park.

A new depth-integrated sample arm (DISA) was developed to improve the representation of solids in stormwater, both organic and inorganic, by collecting a water quality sample from multiple points in the water column.

This streamgage is one of two USGS gages collecting streamflow and water-quality information for a paired-watershed project in Sheboygan County, Wis.

Bald Eagle Lake near the Twin Cities, Minnesota. 

USGS hydrologic technician Dan Daly takes a discharge measurement (the amount of water passing a location) of the Minnesota River near streamgage 05292000, Minnesota River at Ortonville, MN.

Changes in water quality in urban areas may present themselves in conspicuous ways – such as murky or stinky stream water. They may also present themselves in less conspicuous ways – such as fewer native or pollution sensitive organisms.  This drawing is a conglomeration of streams studied in the Milwaukee, WI area.

The Lake Michigan Mass Balance Project measured and modeled concentrations of persistent contaminants in air, water sediment, and fish and bird tissues in and around Lake Michigan. This report provided an updated concentration data and load estimates for nutrients, mercury, and PCBs.

This study identified typical ranges and magnitudes, temporal distributions, and principle factors affecting concentrations and yields of sediment, nutrients, and other constituents in runoff from agricultural fields. The drawing shows water flowing through an agricultural environment.

A section of Lincoln Creek where streambank rehabilitation was completed in 2002, with USGS streamflow equipment in the foreground.

This image shows benthic biofilms growing in Wilson Park at 13th Street, Milwaukee.

USGS monitoring station on Menomonee River at 70th Street.

The continuously bubbling water at the Frederick Springs sand boil at Pheasant Branch Conservatory in Middleton, Wis., is created groundwater flowing up through cracks in the overlying rock and sand.

National Park Service employee Jaime LeDuc holds a sample bottle in a zip-lock bag in Voyageurs National Park.

Road-salt storage at Jones Island (Milwaukee Harbor, February 2004) underscores increasing salt usage and increasing concerns about the effects of overuse on waterways.

Hydrologic technician Russ Buesing clearing branches covered in heavy snow obstructing a GOES antenna at streamgage 05104500 Roseau River Below South Fork Near Malung, Minnesota.

Streamgage 05104500 Roseau River Below South Fork Near Malung, Minnesota.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/05104500/

Hydrologic technician Russ Buesing steps on to cable car at streamgage 05104500 Roseau River Below South Fork Near Malung, Minnesota.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/05104500/

Example completed filled in Wisconsin District Mercury Laboratory Request for Analysis form.

Streamgage 05331580 Mississippi River below lock and dam #2 at Hastings, Minnesota with a railroad bridge in background.

Stream gage house at Little Menomonee River near Freistadt (04087050), during high water.

View looking southwest, towards Milwaukee, Wisconsin skyline and harbor on a summer day.