Publications

Eutrophication is a common problem for lakes in agricultural and urban areas, such as Lakes Wingra and Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin. This report describes a study to estimate the sources of phosphorus, a major contributor to eutrophication, to Lakes Wingra and Mendota from two small urban residential drainage basins. The Monroe Basin empties into Lake Wingra, and the Harper Basin into...

Fish communities in the Upper Mississippi River Basin have been affected by changing environmental and land-use factors. Fish communities in small streams in agricultural and urban basins were compared to the fish community in a relatively undisturbed forested basin. In small streams, nutrient inputs from fertilizer, habitat modification from channelization, hydrologic modification from...

In 1997, Wisconsin farmers applied 8.7 million pounds of herbicides on corn. The five most commonly applied herbicides (in lb (pounds) of active ingredient per acre) on corn in 1997 were atrazine, metolachlor, acetochlor, alachlor and cyanazine. A 1996 study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) found that...

Quarterly water-level measurements were analyzed to assess the effectiveness of a monitoring network of 26 wells in Huron County, Michigan. Trends were identified as constant levels and autoregressive components were computed at all wells on the basis of data collected from 1993 to 1997, using structural time series analysis. Fixed seasonal components were identified at 22 wells and...

This evaluation of the water resources on the Prairie Island Indian Reservation includes data collected from 8 surface-water sites and 22 wells during 1994–97 and historical data. The Mississippi River and the lakes and wetlands connected to it are separated from the Vermillion River and the lakes and wetlands connected to it by the surficial aquifer on Prairie Island and by Lock and Dam...

Trophic accumulation of mercury (Hg) in aquatic ecosystems is of global concern due to health effects associated with eating fish with elevated Hg levels. The methylated form of Hg bioaccumulates so it is important to understand how inorganic Hg is transformed to methylmercury in the environment. Here, a new site for Hg methylation, the periphyton communities that are prevalent in the...

Soil water collected from suction lysimeters and wick samplers buried in the unsaturated zone of a sand and gravel aquifer and extracted from soil cores were analyzed for stable oxygen and hydrogen isotope values. Soil water isotopic values differed among the three sampling methods in most cases. However, because each sampling method collected different fractions of the total soil-water...

Water-resources information has been compiled from 82 studies in which data were collected from the Oneida Reservation and vicinity. Forty-seven studies addressed surface-water issues, 33 studies addressed ground-water issues, and 23 studies addressed aquatic-biology issues. Some multidisciplinary studies are included in more than one category. Most of the surface-water studies...

The distribution and transport of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners was determined at two sites on Pine Creek and at the Hayton Millpond on the South Branch of the Manitowoc River in Wisconsin during 1993-95. PCB congener compositions were analyzed in the operationally defined dissolved phase, suspended particulate phase, and surficial bed sediments (0-2 centimeters depth) several...

Numerous earthen basins have been constructed in Minnesota for storage of livestock waste. Typically, these basins are excavated pits with partially above-grade, earth-walled embankments and compacted clay liners. Some have drain tile installed around them to prevent shallow ground and soil water to discharge into the basins. Environmental concerns associated with the waste include...

The Grand Portage Reservation is located in northeastern Cook County, Minnesota (fig. 1). In 1997 and 1998 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a study, in cooperation with the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, to determine the quality of water in selected inland lakes and streams in the Reservation. The USGS collected and analyzed water from two streams, two wetlands, and four...

North Fish Creek, a Wisconsin tributary to Lake Superior, is an important recreational fishery that is potentially limited by the loss of aquatic habitat caused by accelerated flooding and sedimentation. A study of the historical flooding and sedimentation characteristics of North Fish Creek was done to determine how North Fish Creek responded to human-caused changes in land cover since...