Publications

Seven potential sources of water, consisting of free-flowing discharge from abandoned coal mines at six locations and one abandoned flooded underground coal mine air shaft, were sampled for chemical analysis to assess the quality of the groundwater emanating from the seven mine sources. The six free-flowing mine discharge sources were also assessed for discharge by current-meter...

The lands and waters of the Chesapeake Bay watershed provide more than $100 billion in economic benefits- an amount that is expected to increase by achieving the region’s clean-water goals. Achieving those goals requires accurate and timely information about the health of the watershed’s rivers and streams. The Chesapeake Bay nontidal monitoring network (NTN), a partnership of local...

Many know Jamestown Island, Virginia, hereafter referred to as “the Island,” located near the mouth of the James River into the Chesapeake Bay, as the home of the first permanent English settlement in North America. However, the Island is home to 15,000 years’ worth of cultural artifacts and archaeological sites. In addition to its rich history, the Island is home to a variety of native...

The natural gas pipeline network in the United States is extensive and often intersects streams and other sensitive habitats, yet there are limited case studies utilizing a comparative upstream-downstream approach to evaluate potential short- and long-term effects of pipeline stream crossing construction from pre-construction to post-site restoration. In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey...

The Potomac Tributary Summary outlines change over time for a suite of monitored tidal water quality parameters and associated potential drivers of those trends for the period of 1985 to 2022, and provides a brief description of the current state of knowledge explaining these observed changes. Water quality parameters described include surface (above pycnocline) total nitrogen (TN)...

Freshwater streams and rivers are recognized as vital habitats within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which has been undergoing extensive restoration efforts for more than 30 years. Resource managers need to understand stream and river condition and how these conditions are changing over time to determine whether regional long-term restoration and conservation goals are being met. The...

Bedrock aquifers cover 23,601 square miles within the State of West Virginia and comprise 97.4 percent of the surficial area within the State; the remaining 2.6 percent (621 square miles) consists of alluvial sand-and-gravel and glacial outwash aquifers bordering the State’s major rivers. While West Virginia’s alluvial aquifers have been studied extensively, bedrock aquifers have only...

Water use from private-domestic wells accounts for nearly 40 percent of total groundwater withdrawals in the Virginia Coastal Plain Physiographic Province (henceforth called the Virginia Coastal Plain). However, because self-supplied domestic water use generally falls below the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) reporting and management threshold of 300,000 gallons per...

Managing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water resources requires a basin-scale approach. Predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) and stream-vulnerability scores for PFAS were determined for the Potomac River watershed in the eastern United States. Approximately 15% of stream reaches contained municipal and/or industrial wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges...

Each year, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) personnel collect approximately 52,000 water-quality samples from rivers and streams across the United States. Several samplers are used by the USGS for water-quality sample collection in riverine environments. These samplers are coated with Plasti Dip to protect the exterior of the sampler; however, Plasti Dip is susceptible to fraying and wear...

River ice plays a critical role in controlling streamflow in cold regions. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) qualifies affected water-level measurements and inferred streamflow by ice conditions at a date later than the day of the actual measurements. This study introduces a novel computer vision-based framework, River Ice-Network (RIce-Net), that uses the USGS nationwide network of...

In recent years, local governments have invested heavily in management practices to reduce nutrient and sediment loads. These practices provide localities with nutrient and sediment regulatory reduction credits; however, their effects on water quality are poorly understood at the watershed scale. Long-term watershed-scale monitoring is essential for assessing progress toward water...