Water Quality

The term environmental streamflows refers to the magnitude, frequency, seasonal timing, duration, and rate of change of streamflows needed to sustain freshwater and estuary ecosystems and human wellbeing. It is important that environmental streamflow assessments by water managers consider changes in climate, land use, and water management; this cannot be done effectively without understanding...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), is currently conducting a 4-year water-quality investigation in the lower portion of the Merrimack River watershed, April 2020 – October 2024.

Coastal estuaries in southern New England and New York show the effects of excess nutrients and coastal eutrophication. These include excessive growth of macroalgae, excessive blooms of phytoplankton, oxygen depletion, hypoxia and deteriorated substrates. State and Federal regulators have responded to these nutrient-caused impairments by requiring more stringent permit limits for National...

As part of water-quality data collection activities in New England, water samples are analyzed for chloride in monitoring networks and projects across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Chloride is of interest because high concentrations may affect aquatic life in streams or affect water quality of reservoirs and aquifers used for drinking water.

The USGS, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will be collecting water-quality and hydrologic data at six embayments from April 2021 to June 2027: Mystic, Norwalk, Saugatuck, Sasco-Southport complex, Farm, and Poquonnock.

The New England Water Science Center collects data and does interpretive studies on hydrology, hydraulics, and water quality in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration and State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in New England and other states.

The Scituate Reservoir system is the largest inland body of water in Rhode Island and the principal drinking-water supply for more than 60 percent of the State’s population. The system includes the Scituate Reservoir and five tributary reservoirs with a maximum storage capacity of 37 billion gallons. The drainage basin that contributes water to the reservoir extends across 93 square miles in...

In 2020 the USGS began a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration (SNEP) and EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD), Atlantic Coastal Sciences Division, Narragansett, RI in support of water-quality and ecological monitoring being conducted by ORD in the coastal waters around Wickford, RI. The USGS...

The Sleepers River Research Watershed in Danville, Vermont has been the site of active hydrologic research since 1959, when the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established a research program in the watershed. The Sleepers River site is now operated by the USGS, in cooperation with several other Federal agencies and universities.

Below average and infrequent rainfall from May through September 2020 led to an extreme hydrologic drought across much of New England, with some areas experiencing a flash (quick-onset) drought.

Droughts are one of the most expensive and damaging hydrologic hazards in the United States. They are generally slow in developing, frequently occur over a long period of time, and can affect large areas and populations.

In 2019 USGS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 initiated a study to measure spatial and temporal patterns of nitrogen loading in selected rivers on Cape Cod and then determine whether the measured patterns can be related to nitrogen source areas in the surrounding watersheds to prioritize nitrogen reduction efforts. Study results will improve understanding of nitrogen...