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Analytical framework to estimate water use associated with continuous oil and gas development
An analytical framework was designed to estimate water use associated with continuous oil and gas (COG) development in support of the U.S. Geological Survey Water Availability and Use Science Program. This framework was developed to better understand the relation between the production of COG resources for energy and the amount of water needed to...
Valder, Joshua F.; McShane, Ryan R.; Barnhart, Theodore B.; Wheeling, Spencer L.; Carter, Janet M.; Macek-Rowland, Kathleen M. ; Delzer, Gregory C.; Thamke, Joanna N.
Streamflow gains and losses in New Fork and Green Rivers, upstream from Fontenelle Reservoir, Wyoming, October 2015
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative is a program created to implement a long-term, science-based program of assessing natural resources while facilitating responsible energy and other development and does studies in much of southwestern Wyoming, including all or parts of Lincoln, Sublette, Fremont, Sweetwater, and Carbon Counties. A...
Eddy-Miller, Cheryl A.; Davidson, Seth L.; Wheeler, Jerrod D.; Davis, Sarah J.; Stephens, J. Brooks; Campbell, James R.
Biogenic coal-to-methane conversion can be enhanced with small additions of algal amendment in field-relevant upflow column reactors
ubsurface coal environments, where biogenic coal-to-methane conversion occurs, are difficult to access, resulting in inherent challenges and expenses for in situexperiments. Previous batch reactor studies provided insights into specific processes, pathways, kinetics, and engineering strategies, but field-relevance is restricted due to limited...
Davis, Katherine J.; Platt, George A.; Barnhart, Elliott; Hiebart, Randy; Hyatt, Robert; Fields, Matthew W.; Gerlach, Robin
Water-quality, bed-sediment, and biological data (October 2016 through September 2017) and statistical summaries of data for streams in the Clark Fork Basin, Montana
Water, bed sediment, and biota were sampled in selected streams from Butte to near Missoula, Montana, as part of a monitoring program in the Clark Fork Basin of western Montana. The sampling program was led by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to characterize aquatic resources in the Clark...
Cleasby, Thomas E.; Hornberger, Michelle I.; Heinert, Terry L. ; Turner, Matthew A. Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Oil and gas (energy) development in the Williston Basin, which partly underlies the Prairie Pothole Region in central North America, has helped meet U.S. energy demand for decades. Historical handling and disposal practices of saline wastewater co-produced during energy development resulted in salinization of surface and groundwater at numerous...
Preston, Todd M.; Anderson, Chauncey W.; Thamke, Joanna N.; Hossack, Blake R.; Skalak, Katherine; Cozzarelli, Isabelle M.
Biogeochemical and physical processes controlling mercury methylation and bioaccumulation in Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah and Arizona, 2014 and 2015
Mercury monitoring results from about 300 Morone saxatilis (striped bass) muscle tissue samples collected by the State of Utah from Lake Powell resulted in a Utah/Arizona fish consumption advisory issued in 2012 for approximately the lower 100 kilometers of the reservoir. Chemical, physical, and biological data were collected during two synoptic...
Naftz, David L.; Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark; Krabbenhoft, David P.; Aiken, George; Boyd, Eric S.; Conaway, Christopher H.; Ogorek, Jacob M.; Anderson, Gregory M. Changes in microbial communities and associated water and gas geochemistry across a sulfate gradient in coal beds: Powder River Basin, USA
Competition between microbial sulfate reduction and methanogenesis drives cycling of fossil carbon and generation of CH4 in sedimentary basins. However, little is understood about the fundamental relationship between subsurface aqueous geochemistry and microbiology that drives these processes. Here...
Schweitzer, Hannah; Ritter, Daniel; McIntosh, Jennifer; Barnhart, Elliott; Cunningham, Alfred B.; Vinson, David; Orem, William H.; Fields, Matthew W. Probability of streamflow permanence model (PROSPER): A spatially continuous model of annual streamflow permanence throughout the Pacific Northwest
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed the PRObability of Streamflow PERmanence (PROSPER) model, a GIS raster-based empirical model that provides streamflow permanence probabilities (probabilistic predictions) of a stream channel having year-round flow for any unregulated and minimally-impaired stream channel in the Pacific Northwest...
Jaeger, Kristin; Sando, Thomas R.; McShane, Ryan R.; Dunham, Jason B.; Hockman-Wert, David; Kaiser, Kendra E; Hafen, Konrad (Contractor); Risley, John; Blasch, Kyle Monitoring brine contamination using time-lapse airborne electromagnetic surveys, East Poplar Oil Field, Montana
Integrated geophysical and water-quality studies have been used to delineate areas of saline groundwater in shallow unconfined aquifers underlying the East Poplar oil field in northeastern Montana. In 2004, a RESOLVE survey was conducted over the oil field to identify high conductivity areas potentially associated with brine contamination and to...
Ball, Lyndsay; Deszcz-Pan, Maria; Thamke, Joanna; Smith, Bruce
Williston Basin groundwater availability, United States and Canada
The Williston Basin contains important oil and gas resources for the Nation. Freshwater supplies are limited in this semiarid area, and oil and gas development can require large volumes of freshwater. Groundwater is the primary source of water for many water users in the Williston Basin, so to better understand these resources, the U.S. Geological...
Thamke, Joanna N.; Long, Andrew J.; Davis, Kyle W.
Groundwater availability of the Williston Basin, United States and Canada
Executive SummaryThe Williston Basin of the Northern Great Plains is a sedimentary basin—a geologic bowl-like structure filled with layered sedimentary rocks dating as far back as the Paleozoic age. The basin, which is nationally important for the production of energy resources, spans Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the United States,...
Long, Andrew J.; Thamke, Joanna N.; Davis, Kyle W.; Bartos, Timothy T.
Construction and calibration of a groundwater-flow model to assess groundwater availability in the uppermost principal aquifer systems of the Williston Basin, United States and Canada
The U.S. Geological Survey developed a groundwater-flow model for the uppermost principal aquifer systems in the Williston Basin in parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the United States and parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada as part of a detailed assessment of the groundwater availability in the area. The assessment was...
Davis, Kyle W.; Long, Andrew J.