Publications

The Russian River watershed is in northern Sonoma County and southern Mendocino County, California, in the northern part of the California Coast Ranges. The Russian River serves as a supply for agricultural irrigation and for municipal, domestic, and commercial uses. Through a cooperative agreement with the California State Water Resources Control Board and Sonoma County Water Agency...

Critical minerals (or critical elements) are minerals or elements that are essential to global security and development and have supply chains vulnerable to disruption. In general, knowledge of the environmental behavior and health effects of critical elements is needed to support the development of safe and environmentally responsible supplies. This knowledge includes identifying...

No abstract available.

Tidal wetland restoration to benefit at-risk fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun marsh has gained momentum over the past decade, much of it in response to mitigation requirements for the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. In fall 2023, the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Contractors convened a symposium, entitled Delta-Suisun Tidal...

Both carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are methods to limit future global temperature rise and ocean acidification. CCS sequesters (stores) carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from industrial sources thereby preventing the CO2 from reaching the atmosphere. The captured CO2 is injected into underground geologic reservoirs or is converted into stable industrial...

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC) are high production chemicals used in many commercial and household disinfection products. During the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, QACs were included on lists of COVID-19 disinfectants. Increased QAC use could lead to higher levels of QACs in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents, which could subsequently be released into the environment. To...

Soil moisture maps provide quantitative information that, along with climate and energy balance, is critical to integrate with hydrologic processes for characterizing landscape conditions. However, soil moisture maps are difficult to produce for natural landscapes because of vegetation cover and complex topography. Satellite-based L-band microwave sensors are commonly used to develop...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, analyzed water and sediment chemistry, benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages, fish and amphibian assemblages, fish and invertebrate tissues, instream habitat characteristics, and sediment heterogeneity at 10 stream sites within Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Shasta County, California, during August 2020, 2...

Summary More than 2 million Californians rely on groundwater from privately owned domestic wells for drinking-water supply. This report summarizes a water-quality survey of domestic and small-system drinking-water supply wells in the eastern Sacramento Valley and adjacent foothills where more than 25,000 residents are estimated to use privately owned domestic wells. Study results show...

Sediment from the Central Valley via the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and Suisun Bay is a primary source of sand to San Francisco Bay, California. Sand is mined from San Francisco Bay for commercial purposes, such as for use in concrete for construction. To better understand the supply of sand to Suisun Bay and San Francisco Bay, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known colloquially as “forever chemicals”, have been associated with adverse human health effects and have contaminated drinking water supplies across the United States owing to their long-term and widespread use. People in the United States may unknowingly be drinking water that contains PFAS because of a lack of systematic analysis...

Groundwater-quality data and potential fluid-migration pathways near the Placerita Oil Field in Los Angeles County, California, were examined by the U.S. Geological Survey to determine if oil-field fluids (water and gas from oil-producing and non-producing zones) have mixed with groundwater resources. Six of the 13 new groundwater samples collected for this study contained petroleum...