Data

The Great Basin of the Western United States hosts dozens of terminal lake systems that provide critical, abundant, and diverse ecosystems that support migratory bird species, local wildlife, and nearby communities. Water quality varies across terminal lakes in the region depending on basin geology, anthropogenic water use, climate, hydrology, and water quantity. Seasonal and long-term...

The Great Salt Lake (GSL) ecosystem relies on a balanced supply of nutrients to support habitat and industrial uses (Belovsky and others, 2011). To better understand processes controlling GSL nutrient availability, this dataset includes field measurements and laboratory analyses from the water column, sediment, porewater, sediment slurry, brine shrimp, river inflows, sediment traps, and

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) collected a total of 179 samples of surficial sediment from abandoned mine wastepiles, ephemeral channels below wastepiles, nearby outcrops, and background areas representative of the undisturbed lithology within the Henry Mountains and Fremont mining districts (Krahulec, 2018). The samples are associated with the following mining claims within...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the aquatic environment present a water resource management challenge, in part due to the geospatial distribution of presumptive sources and their connections to the hydrological network. MITRE developed a geospatial model called Water Sensing and Hydrology for Environmental Decision Support (WaterSHEDS) that assigns stream-vulnerability...

Co-developed surface and subsurface hydrologic models for the Upper Colorado River Basin and the Colorado Plateaus principal aquifer system were used to investigate the drivers of change in hydrologic water budget components during contrasting recent wet (1982–1999) and drought (2000–2022) time periods in select headwater subregions of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The hydrologic...

This data release is associated with the following Scientific Investigations Report: Root, J.C., and Rumsey, C.A., 2025, Estimation of baseflow and flooding characteristics for East Canyon Creek, Summit and Morgan Counties, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2025–5003, 29 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20255003. East Canyon Creek is a perennial snowmelt...

A permeable rock-fill causeway was constructed across Great Salt Lake between 1957–1959, dividing the lake into North and South Arms. Several open channels have been constructed to connect the two arms of the lake, with the most recent, informally named the New Breach, being completed in 2016. A berm across the New Breach restricts flow between the North and South Arms and was originally...

This data release contains measured stream discharge and total dissolved solids (TDS) data and estimated values for daily stream TDS loads, daily baseflow discharge, and daily baseflow TDS loads for 205 locations in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The estimated values, which represent conditions between 10/1/1985 and 9/30/2020, were obtained using the Weighted Regressions on Time...

The USGS collected water level time series data sets using a submersible pressure transducer at FORGE WELL 58B-32 during an aquifer test from February 12 to February 16, 2024. Transmissivity of the pumped aquifer was estimated to be 37,520-55,080 square feet per day using a Theis solution for unconfined aquifers provided by AQTESOLV software. The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer was...

This data release contains an inventory of 1,358 major surface water diversion structures with associated daily time series withdrawal records (1980-2022) for structures within the Upper Colorado River and Little Colorado River Basins. Diversion structures were included in this dataset if they were determined to have the capacity to divert water at rates greater than 10 cubic feet per...

During August of 2014, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) collected a total of 187 surficial sediment and bedrock samples from abandoned mine wastepiles, ephemeral channels below wastepiles, nearby outcrops, and background areas representative of the undisturbed lithology within Emery County, UT. The samples were clustered into four different groups: Buckmaster Draw (BM), Dry...

Great Salt Lake (GSL) is a designated Site of Hemispheric Importance for migratory birds by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. Elevated mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) levels related to current inputs and past industrial contamination pose a potential threat to GSL biota, in addition to waterfowl hunters that utilize GSL and surrounding wetland areas. Sediments...