Continuous Water-Quality Measurements
Continuous Water-Quality Measurements
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Highlighting Streamgages in Wyoming and Montana
The Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center operates nearly 400 streamgages in Montana and Wyoming. Some streamgages are tucked away in high mountains or remote prairies, while some reside in locations visited by millions of people each year. Uses of data from these streamgages include managing water rights and diversion, informing recreationists, and monitoring flows for fisheries and wildlife...
Milk River and Missouri River Continuous Water-Quality Monitoring
The Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center, in collaboration with the Assiniboine and Sioux Rural Water Supply System (ASRWSS), is monitoring water quality on a seasonal basis at three U.S. Geological Survey streamgages along the Milk River and Missouri River.
Evidence of selenium transport from Elk River Valley, Canada to the Columbia River
Selenium is an essential nutrient with a narrow gap between enough for life and too much for life. Mining operations have been linked to releasing selenium into rivers and streams, where it can accumulate in aquatic ecosystems and disrupt the development of egg-laying organisms like fish and birds. Recent research shows that selenium travels farther from the Elk River Valley than previously...
Growth of coal mining operations in the Elk River Valley linked to increasing transport of selenium, nitrate, and sulfate into Lake Koocanusa
Lake Koocanusa (also called Koocanusa Reservoir) is a transboundary reservoir that's located in northwestern Montana and southwestern British Columbia, Canada (BC) and encompasses the headwaters of the Kootenai watershed, eventually flowing into the Columbia River. Coal mining has occurred in the Elk River watershed in British Columbia, Canada for more than 100 years. Concentrations of different...
Wyoming StreamStats
StreamStats is a digital, map-based tool designed to provide information about streamflow and the upstream watershed of any selected point on a stream. The tool can assist in water resources planning and management and support engineering and design projects. In Wyoming, the current capabilities of the application are basin delineations and basin-characteristics.
Snake River Basin Streamflow and Water Temperature
The USGS WY-MT Water Science Center operates streamgages in the Snake River Basin in Wyoming that report streamflow in the mainstem of the Snake River and tributary streams. During the spring of 2022, in cooperation with the Teton Conservation District, thermistors were installed at six sites in the basin to record and report water temperature data. There are currently 12 sites in the basin that...
Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative: Water Resources
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative is a long-term science-based effort to assess and enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitats at a landscape scale in southwest Wyoming, while facilitating responsible development through local collaboration and partnerships. The WLCI is an interagency working group of partners that is beginning the process of establishing a much larger coalition of...
Characterizing Hydrologic and Geomorphic Processes in a Spring-Fed, Cold-Desert Headwater Stream
The role of natural versus human-influenced factors in sedimentation of Littlefield Creek, a small, high-desert creek in south-central Wyoming is currently unknown. In general, there is little empirical information about both hydrologic and geomorphic processes (together described as hydrogeomorphic) in these types of streams. To develop a better understanding of hydrogeomorphic processes, their...
Characterization and Quantification of Salinity Loads from Blacks Fork above Smiths Fork near Lyman, Wyoming
The Blacks Fork is a stream that contributes a salinity load to the Colorado River Basin. In order to quantify the salinity load, collection of continuous streamflow and specific conductance data, and monthly sampling for total-dissolved solids will occur from April 2018 through September 2019. Calculations of monthly and annual salinity loading from the Blacks Fork were published in 2021.
Wyoming-Montana Stream Water-Quality Network
The USGS monitors stream water quality in Wyoming and Montana in cooperation with State, County, local, and other Federal agencies. Water-quality data for these sites are available from the USGS National Water Information System Web Mapper application in the form of an interactive map.