Publications

In a series of studies along the Great Lakes, U.S. Geological Survey scientists are examining the physical processes that influence concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria and related pathogens at recreational beaches. These studies aim to estimate human health risk, improve management strategies, and understand the fate and transport of microbes in the nearshore area. It was...

The overall mission of this work is to provide science-based information and methods that will allow beach managers to more accurately make beach closure and advisory decisions, understand the sources and physical processes affecting beach contaminants, and understand how science-based information can be used to mitigate and restore beaches and protect the public. The U.S. Geological...

Nowcasts are systems that inform the public of current bacterial water-quality conditions at beaches on the basis of predictive models. During 2010–12, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) worked with 23 local and State agencies to improve existing operational beach nowcast systems at 4 beaches and expand the use of predictive models in nowcasts at an additional 45 beaches throughout the...

This fact sheet describes utilities created for management of recreational waters to provide efficient data management, data aggregation, and predictive modeling as well as a prototype geographic information system (GIS)-based tool for data visualization and summary. All of these utilities were developed to assist beach managers in making decisions to protect public health. The...

In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District initiated a study to develop regression models to estimate real-time concentrations and loads of chloride, suspended solids, phosphorus, and bacteria in streams near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To collect monitoring data for calibration of models, water-quality sensors and automated samplers were installed at...

Understanding of factors that influence Escherichia coli (EC) and enterococci (ENT) concentrations, pathogen occurrence, and microbial sources at Great Lakes beaches comes largely from individual beach studies. Using 12 representative beaches, we tested enrichment cultures from 273 beach water and 22 tributary samples for EC, ENT, and genes indicating the bacterial pathogens Shiga-toxin...

Hydrologic manipulations have the potential to exacerbate or remediate eutrophication in productive reservoirs. Dam operations at Kabetogama Lake, Minnesota, were modified in 2000 to restore a more natural water regime and improve water quality. The US Geological Survey and National Park Service evaluated nutrient, algae, and nuisance bloom data in relation to changes in Kabetogama Lake...

More than 140 nations recently agreed to a legally binding treaty on reductions in human uses and releases of mercury that will be signed in October of this year. This follows the 2011 rule in the United States that for the first time regulates mercury emissions from electricity-generating utilities. Several decades of scientific research preceded these important regulations. However...

Estimates of groundwater recharge spatial and temporal variability are essential inputs to groundwater flow models that are used to test groundwater availability under different management and climate conditions. In this study, a soil water balance analysis was conducted to estimate groundwater recharge on the island of Jeju, Korea, for baseline, drought, and climate-land use change...

A new sample collection system was developed to improve the representation of sediment in stormwater by integrating the entire water column. The depth-integrated sampler arm (DISA) was able to mitigate sediment stratification bias in storm water, thereby improving the characterization of particle size distribution from urban source areas. Collector streets had the lowest median particle...

In 2010, groundwater from 20 Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) production wells was tested for 69 organic-wastewater compounds (OWCs). The OWCs detected in one-half of the sampled wells are widely used in industrial and environmental applications and commonly occur in many wastes and stormwater. To identify factors that contribute to the occurrence of these constituents in BWL wells...

For more than a decade, the National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs) have been estimating spatially distributed rainfall by applying quality-control procedures to radar-indicated rainfall estimates in the eastern United States and other best practices in the western United States to producea national Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (QPE) (National Weather Service...