Publications

BackgroundWater use in the State of Washington has evolved during the past century from small withdrawals used for domestic and stock needs to the diverse needs of current public supply systems, domestic water users, irrigation projects, industrial plants, and aquaculture industries. Increasing demand for water makes the accountability of water use an important issue.A few State and local agencies

The sediments of Sinclair Inlet, in Puget Sound, Washington, have elevated levels of contaminants including mercury. The Bremerton Naval Complex is adjacent to Sinclair Inlet, and has known areas of historical soil mercury contamination. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, has been investigating the potential for mercury sources on the Bremerton Naval Complex to recontam

The availability of cold-water refugia during summertime river-water temperature maximums is important for cold-water fish species including Endangered Species Act listed salmonids since water temperature influences metabolism, growth, and phenology. The U.S. Geological Survey monitored water temperature at 10 sites approximately evenly-spaced along the lower Quinault River on the Olympic Peninsul

The U.S. Geological Survey evaluated the transformation of mercury to bioavailable methylmercury in Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington, and assessed the effect of the transformation processes on the mercury burden in marine organisms and sediment. In August 2008, samples of sediment, water, and biota from six sites in Sinclair Inlet and three bays representative of Puget Sound embayments we

Fine sediment (particles <2 mm in diameter) in stream beds has wide-ranging effects on hydraulics, geomorphology, and ecology and is a primary focus for stream quality management in many regions. We identify reach- and basin-scale factors associated with fine sediment in the beds of 83 stream reaches in the Midwestern United States using recursive partitioning of sand-bed and gravel-bed streams an

Groundwater and surface water collectively supply the domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs of the 895-square mile upper Chehalis River Basin upstream of Grand Mound, Washington, while providing streamflow for fish and other aquatic species in the Chehalis River and its tributaries. To support sustainable water management decision-making, a water budget (including precipitation, interceptio

Chemicals such as metals and organics (polychlorinated biphenyl [PCBs], polybrominated diphenyl ethers [PBDEs], polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], and phthalates) continue to enter Puget Sound, western Washington, from point sources (such as industrial and municipal outfalls) and combined sewer outfalls and non-point sources (such as stormwater runoff). Runoff during storm events has been id

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the lower Yakima River Basin Groundwater Management Area (GWMA) group, conducted an intensive groundwater sampling collection effort of collecting nitrate concentration data in drinking water to provide a baseline for future nitrate assessments within the GWMA. About every 6 weeks from April through December 2017, a total of 1,059 samples were collec

Human impacts on rivers threaten the natural function of riverine ecosystems. This paper assesses how channel confinement affects the scour depth and spatial extent of bed disturbance and discusses the implications of these results for salmon-redd disturbance in gravel-bedded rivers. Two-dimensional hydrodynamic models of relatively confined and unconfined reaches of the Cedar River in Washington

Operable Unit 2, Area 8, at Naval Base Kitsap, Keyport is the site of a former chrome-plating facility that released metals (primarily chromium and cadmium), chlorinated volatile organic compounds, and petroleum compounds into the local environment. To ensure long-term protectiveness, as stipulated in the Fourth Five-Year Review for the site, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest collabor

The Green-Duwamish River transports watershed-derived sediment to the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site near Seattle, Washington. Understanding the amount of sediment transported by the river is essential to the bed sediment cleanup process. Turbidity, discharge, suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), and particle-size data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from February 20

Water resource managers face increasing challenges in identifying what physical and chemical stressors are responsible for the alteration of biological conditions in streams. The objective of this study was to assess the comparative influence of multiple stressors on benthic diatoms at 98 sites that spanned a range of stressors in an agriculturally dominated region in the upper Midwest, USA. The p