Publications

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...

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...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with local and other agencies, collects data at selected lakes throughout Wisconsin. These data, accumulated over many years, provide a data base for developing an improved understanding of the water quality of lakes. To make these data available to interested parties outside the USGS, the data are published annually in this report series...

Data that describe the physical characteristics of stream subbasins upstream from selected. sites on streams in the South Fork Crow River Basin, located in south-central Minnesota 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 of the subbasin covered by both...

Data that describe the physical characteristics of stream subbasins upstream from selected sites on streams in the North Fork Crow-Crow River Basin, located in south-central Minnesota 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 of the subbasin covered by...

The Mille Lacs Lake study area is a 960 mi2 area containing the ground-water and surface-water drainages to both Mille Lacs Lake and the first 12 miles of the Rum River. Within this study area, available ground water occurs in saturated, overlapping, discontinuous, partially-connected, glacially-deposited (hereinafter, glacial) aquifers and in bedrock aquifers. No extensive glacial...

No abstract available.

Streamwater samples were collected from April 1993 through July 1995 at 11 fixed sites in the Western Lake Michigan Drainages Study Unit of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Water samples were collected monthly at all Fixed Sites, and an additional two to four samples were collected each year during periods of high flow. Streamflow was monitored...

In the spring of 1996, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Study Unit of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program drilled 30 shallow monitoring wells in a study area characterized by urban residential and commercial land uses. The monitoring wells were installed in sandy river-terrace deposits adjacent to the Mississippi River in Anoka and Hennepin Counties, Minnesota, in areas where...

Stream-bottom sediment and fish-tissue samples from the Red River of the North Basin, were analyzed for a large suite of chemical elements and organic chemicals. Cadmium, lead, and mercury were widespread in sediments, at concentrations not indicative of acute contamination. Mercury, the element of greatest health concern in the region, was detected at low concentrations in 38 of 43...

All of the rain samples during the growing season had detectable quantities of at least one pesticide, but most of the pesticides were only infrequently observed. The most frequently detected compounds were the herbicides alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, and metolachlor, and in 1994, its first year of registration, acetochlor. Peak concentrations of most herbicides in rainfall occurred...