Publications

GROUND-WATER ISSUES Ground-water sources provide about one-half of the water used in Wisconsin, excluding the water used for thermoelectric cooling. Ground-water sources serve about 70 percent of the State's population. All rural-domestic supplies and about 94 percent of the municipalities use ground water. Nearly all irrigation and stock watering are from ground water. Aquifers in...

Delavan Lake is a eutrophic, recreational lake in a densely populated area of southeastern Wisconsin. Sewage effluent and septic tank drainage were diverted out of the drainage basin of the lake to improve its water quality in 1981. The worst known blue-green algal bloom occurred in the lake in the summer of 1983. A comprehensive hydrologic and water-quality investigation was started in...

Aquaculture supports a large sportfishing industry in Minnesota. Licensed fish farms that hatch and (or) harvest minnows or gamefish are located throughout the State. The volume of water used in these operations can be expressed as the minimum capacity per pound of fish, total water consumed, total water dedicated to the farming operation, or total water withdrawn. In expressing water...

Nearly 700 million gallons of ground water are withdrawn every day in Minnesota, mostly for public supply, irrigation, and domestic and commercial use. About 94 percent of the public water-supply systems in the State use ground water and 75 percent of all Minnesotans obtain their domestic supplies from ground water. The major issues related to this important resource in Minnesota are:

Log-Pearson type III flood-frequency analyses were made of annual series peak-flow records from 246 gaging stations on unregulated streams in Minnesota having watersheds ranging in area from 0.08 to 2,520 square miles. These flood discharges were related to watershed and climatic characteristics by using multiple-regression techniques. On the basis of this preliminary regression analysis...

Water resources data for the 1987 water year for Michigan consists of records of stage, stage and contents of lakes and discharge, and water quality of streams; reservoirs; and water levels and water temperature of ground water. This report contains discharge records for 135 streamflow-gaging stations; stage only records for 15 lake-gaging stations; stage and contents for 5 lakes and...

Ground water is one of the most important natural resources of the United States and degradation of its quality could have a major effect on the welfare of the Nation. Currently (1985), ground water is the source of drinking water for 53 percent of the Nation's population and for more than 97 percent of its rural population. It is the source of about 40 percent of the Nation's public...

This study characterizes the clay minerals in sediments associated with a plume of creosote-contaminated groundwater. The plume of contaminated groundwater near Pensacola, FL, is in shallow, permeable, Miocene to Holocene quartz sand and flows southward toward Pensacola Bay. Clay-size fractions were separated from 41 cores, chiefly split-spoon samples at 13 drill sites. The most striking...

Research on the hydrology of Williams Lake, north-central Minnesota includes study of evaporation. Those climatic data needed for energy budget and mass transfer studies are presented , including: water surface temperature, dry-bulb and wet-bulb air temperatures, wind speed, precipitation, and solar and atmospheric radiation. Some calculated values necessary for these studies are also...

Estimates of runoff for 56 sites within the Shenandoah National Park were made by the U.S. Geological Survey for the Direct/Delayed Response Project that is being conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The purpose of that project is to determine the long-term effects of acidic deposition on surface-water chemistry. Runoff was estimated for the period July 18,1981, through...

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore consists of 21 islands, part of the Bayfield Peninsula, and the adjacent waters of Lake Superior. Selected water resources of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore were assessed to aid the National Park Service in developing and managing the Lakeshore and to provide a data base against which future changes can be compared. This summary of water...

Water levels, locations, depths, and aquifers tapped are given for 112 observation wells. Tabulated data include extremes of water levels for calendar year 1986 and for the period of record, pumpage of most major groundwater users in the State, and water-quality data from selected wells. The largest reported user of ground-water, the city of Lansing, pumped 7.6 billion gallons from the...