Publications

Extensive flooding occurred in the basins of the Missouri and upper Mississippi Rivers and the Red River of the North. Other large floods were confined mainly to the States of Texas, Utah, Nevada, and California. The most intense of the large floods was the September flood in south-central Texas, which resulted from rains ranging from 5 to 26 inches in 48 hours on an area of about 1,000...

Major floods occurred in four areas in the United States during 1953: western Oregon and northwestern California, Louisiana and adjacent States, the Missouri River basin in Montana, and northwestern Iowa. Monetary loss from floods in 1953 was much lower than in any one of the preceding 3 years and was less than half the national annual average as computed by the Weather Bureau.

No abstract available.

The structural geology and the distribution of aquifers in the southeastern part of San Juan County were studied to establish the relationships of fresh-water aquifers to the oil- and gas-bearing rocks in that area.

An accelerated use of water resulting from a growing population, industrial expansion, and irrigation has brought into focus the importance of the quality as well as the quantity of this natural resource in Utah. As new demands are made on the existing supply, a search goes on for new sources of ground and surface water. These new sources must not only meet quantity requirements, but...

Phreatophytes are plants that depend for their water supply upon ground water that lies within reach of their roots. Although not confined to the arid regions of the Western United States, their occurrence there is more common, more spectacular, and, because of their effect on water supply, more important than it is in humid and subhumid regions. Most phreatophytes have low economic...

The floods of April-June 1952 in the Great Basin and in the Green River basin in Utah came as the result of the heaviest snow cover recorded, a long period of near-record subnormal temperature during March and early April, and an abrupt change to above-normal temperature that induced rapid melting.Rainfall played an insignificant part. Low- and intermediate-elevation snow melted...

The estimated withdrawal use of water in the United States during 1955 was about 740,000 mgd (million gallons per day). Withdrawal use of water requires that it be removed from the ground or diverted from a stream or lake. In this report it is divided into five types: public supplies, rural, irrigation, self-supplied industrial, and waterpower. Consumptive use of water is the quantity...

Basic hydrologic data available in the field offices of the U. S. Geological Survey and reports issued by the Survey furnish evidence that saline water (defined in this report as water containing more than 1,000 parts per million of dissolved solids) is available under diverse geologic and hydrologic conditions throughout the United States. The number of areas in which undeveloped...

Reservoir storage facilities in the United States play an important part in the national economy. Storage facilities have enabled the country to utilize to a much fuller extent one of the most valuable natural resources: water. During recent years the construction of reservoirs has continued at a high rate. This report shows the status of these facilities on January 1, 1954, and...

Ground-water mining, the progressive depletion of storage in a ground-water reservoir, has been going on for several years in some areas, chiefly in the Southwestern States. In some of these States a water right is based on ownership of land overlying the ground-water reservoir and does not depend upon putting the water to use; in some States a right is based upon priority of...

The study of the quality of water of the Colorado River and its tributaries has been a continuing one since 1925. The data so obtained have been useful in the planning and construction of dams and reservoirs, the utilization of the water within the basin, and in planning the economy of areas outside of the basin, partially or wholly dependent on the diversion or importation of water from...