Regional Water Research

USGS scientists have partnered with local groups to learn about the processes affecting turbidity in Malheur Lake. Located in southeastern Oregon, Malheur Lake and the surrounding refuge provide critical habitat to birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway.

The USGS and the Environmental Protection Agency are working together using advanced modeling tools to understand how 6PPD-quinone moves through watersheds and how green infrastructure can reduce its impact.

Chinook Salmon and Pacific Lamprey are culturally significant fishes to the Tribal community along the Siletz River, Oregon. The USGS studied how streamflow and bedload conditions may influence mainstem spawning habitats.

Migratory wildlife need to balance the benefits of migration and reproduction with the physiological costs. This is particularly challenging in dynamic environments like wetlands, where food levels can vary greatly from year to year. For shorebirds in the Great Basin region, saline or terminal lakes provide essential habitats during their annual life cycle. To understand how changes in hydrology...

The U.S. Geological Survey is working with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to revolutionize bridge scour monitoring using real-time sonar data collection and bathymetric surveying to remotely monitor sites, collect long-term data for evaluation, and develop and improve hydraulic models that predict scour.

Learn about our new streamgages in the Williamette River Basin.

Satellite imagery and the interplay of climate and hydrologic data tell the story of surface-water decline in the Klamath Marsh.

USGS scientists partnered with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership (LCEP) to assess toxic contaminant levels at 10 sites within the Lower Columbia River. Our strategy is to compare current toxic contaminant levels to the results collected previously at these sites to identify temporal changes.

In response to the catastrophic fires of 2020 in Oregon, the ORWSC teamed up with the Water Mission Area’s Water Availability - Impacts of Extreme Events to quantify and understand the water quality effects in severely burned watersheds. In Oregon, four basins were selected to monitor the quality of the water in streams with continuous sensors and discrete water quality sampling.

Learn about the groundwater flow system within the Columbia River Basalt Group in the Umatilla River Basin.

The USGS is monitoring water-quality above, within, and below Middle Fork Willamette and the South Santiam River dams to understand how reservoir drawdowns influence downstream water-quality conditions.

What could happen to nutrient loads in the Klamath River if water from the Klamath Straits Drain is recirculated into the Ady Canal? USGS scientists investigate.