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Eric Morway

Eric Morway is a Research Hydrologist in Carson City, NV.

Science and Products

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Pyramid Lake, Nev.

Science in the Truckee River Basin

The Truckee River flows for 120 miles from the outlet of Lake Tahoe in California, into Nevada, through the city of Reno, until it terminates at Pyramid Lake and is the only source of surface-water outflow from Lake Tahoe. The majority of the streamflow in the Truckee River comes from the Sierra Nevada snowpack. Contributions to the river in Nevada are small due to the Sierra Nevada’s “rain shadow...
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Nevada Water Science Center
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Science in the Truckee River Basin

The Truckee River flows for 120 miles from the outlet of Lake Tahoe in California, into Nevada, through the city of Reno, until it terminates at Pyramid Lake and is the only source of surface-water outflow from Lake Tahoe. The majority of the streamflow in the Truckee River comes from the Sierra Nevada snowpack. Contributions to the river in Nevada are small due to the Sierra Nevada’s “rain shadow...
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Carson River, Nev.

Science in the Carson River Basin

The Carson River begins in the Sierra Nevada as the East Fork and West Fork of the Carson River. These two forks come together in the Carson Valley, not far from Carson City, Nev. The river then flows through the Carson River Basin until its terminus at the Carson Sink. The Carson River is a popular recreation spot with rafters, hikers, and fishermen.
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Nevada Water Science Center
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Science in the Carson River Basin

The Carson River begins in the Sierra Nevada as the East Fork and West Fork of the Carson River. These two forks come together in the Carson Valley, not far from Carson City, Nev. The river then flows through the Carson River Basin until its terminus at the Carson Sink. The Carson River is a popular recreation spot with rafters, hikers, and fishermen.
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View downstream, Carson River, Nevada

Water for the Seasons

Water for the Seasons (WftS) is a four year study funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. WtfS uses the Truckee-Carson River System (TCRS) as a pilot study to learn how to best link science with decision-making in snow-fed arid-land river systems. By working collaboratively with stakeholders, WftS aims to create a model for improving community climate...
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Nevada Water Science Center
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Water for the Seasons

Water for the Seasons (WftS) is a four year study funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. WtfS uses the Truckee-Carson River System (TCRS) as a pilot study to learn how to best link science with decision-making in snow-fed arid-land river systems. By working collaboratively with stakeholders, WftS aims to create a model for improving community climate...
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Middle Carson River Basin, Nevada, looking toward the Sierra Nevada

Evaluation of Groundwater Flow in the Middle Carson River Basin, Eagle, Dayton, and Churchill Valleys, Nevada

Demand for water resources in the Carson River basin is increasing due to steady population growth and the resulting development and changes in land and water use throughout the middle part of the basin. Agricultural land is being urbanized while land not previously irrigated may be converted for agricultural use.
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Nevada Water Science Center
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Evaluation of Groundwater Flow in the Middle Carson River Basin, Eagle, Dayton, and Churchill Valleys, Nevada

Demand for water resources in the Carson River basin is increasing due to steady population growth and the resulting development and changes in land and water use throughout the middle part of the basin. Agricultural land is being urbanized while land not previously irrigated may be converted for agricultural use.
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MODFLOW-NWT and MT3D-USGS models for appraising parameter sensitivity and other controlling factors in a synthetic watershed accounting for variably-saturated flow processes

A 3-dimensional (3D) synthetic model, using MODFLOW-NWT and MT3D-USGS, explores the new unsaturated zone heat transport capabilities in MT3D-USGS. Model simulations were used to explore various parameter sensitivities and unsaturated zone thicknesses and their impact on heat transport as water enters the subsurface as infiltration, flows through the unsaturated zone to the water table, and eventua
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Nevada Water Science Center

MODFLOW-NWT and MT3D-USGS models for evaluating heat flows, lags and dampening under high emission climate forcing for unsaturated/saturated transport in a synthetic watershed

A 3-dimensional (3D) synthetic model, built for running with MODFLOW-NWT and MT3D-USGS, explores the new unsaturated zone heat transport capabilities in MT3D-USGS. Model simulations explore potential responses to within a watershed to climate warming along system pathways. The response analysis uses output from a 30-year warming period on a synthetic watershed patterned after a humid temperate cli
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Nevada Water Science Center

MODFLOW-NWT, MT3D-USGS, and VS2DH models of 6 hypothetical 1-dimensional variably saturated systems to demonstrate the accuracy of new heat transport capabilities in MT3D-USGS

Six hypothetical 1-dimensional models are used to verify and demonstrate new unsaturated-zone heat transport functionality added to MT3D-USGS (version 1.1.0). Because the governing equations describing groundwater solute transport and heat transport have a similar form, MT3D-USGS may be applied to heat transport problems. Published examples of MT3DMS, from which MT3D-USGS is derived, as a heat tra
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Nevada Water Science Center

MODFLOW-NWT model used to simulate Potential Effects of Changes in Water Use in the Middle Carson River Basin for Eagle, Dayton, and Churchill Valleys, West-Central, Nevada

A three-dimensional MODFLOW-NWT groundwater flow model was developed to evaluate the impacts of alternative water management scenarios on the groundwater resources of Eagle, Dayton, and Churchill Valleys, Nevada. In addition, the resulting impact on flows in the Carson River and Lahontan Reservoir are also evaluated. During the economic boom that occurred from 2004-2006 in northwestern Nevada, mun
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Nevada Water Science Center

MODFLOW 6 model of two hypothetical stream-aquifer systems to demonstrate the utility of the new Mover Package available only with MODFLOW 6

Two MODFLOW 6 (version 6.2.1) models of hypothetical stream-aquifer systems are presented for the demonstration and utility of the Water Mover (MVR) Package available only with MODFLOW 6. Using a generalized approach, MVR facilitates the transfer of water among many arbitrary combinations of simulated features (i.e., pumping wells, stream, drains, lakes, etc.) within a MODFLOW 6 simulation. In th
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Nevada Water Science Center

GSFLOW and MODSIM-GSFLOW model used to evaluate the potential effects of increased temperature on the Carson Valley watershed and agricultural system in eastern California and western Nevada

The USGS developed an integrated river operations-groundwater model using GSFLOW and MODSIM GSFLOW to simulate streamflow derived from snowmelt, the distribution of surface water based on the existing prior appropriations water doctrine, supplemental pumping in response to surface water shortfalls, and the resulting surface water-groundwater interactions in the Carson Valley in California and Neva
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Nevada Water Science Center

Discharge, nutrient, and suspended sediment data for selected streams in the Lake Tahoe watershed

A time series of nutrient and mean daily discharge data were used to create models of daily concentration and loads for selected streams of the Lake Tahoe watershed. A total of 15 sites have records ranging from as early as 1972 to 2017. Nutrients in the data set include nitrate, ammonium, Kjeldahl Nitrogen, orthophosphate, and total phosphorus. Total suspended sediment concentrations are also inc
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California Water Science Center
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New capabilities in MT3D-USGS for simulating unsaturated-zone heat transport

Changes in climate and land use will alter groundwater heat transport dynamics in the future. These changes will in turn affect watershed processes (e.g., nutrient cycling) as well as watershed characteristics (e.g., distribution and persistence of cold-water habitat). Thus, groundwater flow and heat transport models at watershed scales that can characterize and quantify thermal impacts of surfac
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Eric D. Morway, Daniel T. Feinstein, Randall J. Hunt, Richard W. Healy
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Assessing potential effects of changes in water use in the middle Carson River Basin with a numerical groundwater-flow model, Eagle, Dayton, and Churchill Valleys, west-central Nevada

During the economic boom of the mid part of the first decade of the 2000s in northwestern Nevada, municipal and housing growth increased use of the water resources of this semi-arid region. In 2008, when the economy slowed, new housing development stopped, and immediate pressure on groundwater resources abated. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, began a hydr
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Eric D. Morway, Susan G. Buto, Richard G. Niswonger, Justin L. Huntington
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Simulation of heat flow in a synthetic watershed: Lags and dampening across multiple pathways under a climate-forcing scenario

Although there is widespread agreement that future climates tend toward warming, the response of aquatic ecosystems to that warming is not well understood. This work, a continuation of companion research, explores the role of distinct watershed pathways in lagging and dampening climate-change signals. It subjects a synthetic flow and transport model to a 30-year warming signal based on climate pro
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Daniel T. Feinstein, Randall J. Hunt, Eric D. Morway
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Water Resources Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Nevada Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

The MODFLOW Application Programming Interface for simulationcontrol and software interoperability

The MODFLOW API allows other programs to control MODFLOW and interactively change variables without having to modify the source code. The MODFLOW API is based on the Basic Model Interface (BMI), which is a set of conventions that define how to initialize a simulation, update the model state by advancing in time, and finalize the run. For many existing MODFLOW coupling applications, the information
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Joseph D. Hughes, Martijn J. Russcher, Christian D. Langevin, Eric D. Morway, Richard R. McDonald
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Water Resources Mission Area

Use of the MODFLOW 6 water mover package to represent natural and managed hydrologic connections

The latest release of MODFLOW 6, the current core version of the MODFLOW groundwater modeling software, debuted a new package dubbed the “mover” (MVR). Using a generalized approach, MVR facilitates the transfer of water among any arbitrary combination of simulated features (i.e., pumping wells, stream, drains, lakes, etc.) within a MODFLOW 6 simulation. Four “rules” controlling the amount of water
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Eric D. Morway, Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Integrated hydrology and operations modeling to evaluate climate change impacts in an agricultural valley irrigated with snowmelt runoff

Applying models to developed agricultural regions remains a difficult problem because there are no existing modeling codes that represent both the complex physics of the hydrology and anthropogenic manipulations to water distribution and consumption. We apply an integrated groundwater – surface water and hydrologic river operations model to an irrigated river valley in northwestern Nevada/northern
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Wesley Kitlasten, Eric D. Morway, Richard G. Niswonger, Murphy Gardner, Jeremy T. White, Enrique Triana, David J. Selkowitz
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Alaska Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center

Trends in nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment concentrations and loads in streams draining to Lake Tahoe, California, Nevada, USA

Lake Tahoe, a large freshwater lake of the eastern Sierra Nevada in California and Nevada, has 63 tributaries that are sources of nutrients and sediment to the lake. The Tahoe watershed is relatively small, and the surface area of the lake occupies about 38% of the watershed area (1313 km2). Only about 6% of the watershed is urbanized or residential land, and as part of a plan to maintain water cl
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Joseph L. Domagalski, Eric D. Morway, Nancy L. Alvarez, Juliet Hutchins, Michael R. Rosen, Robert Coats
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Water Resources Mission Area, California Water Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, Wildland Fire Science

Managed aquifer recharge in snow-fed river basins: What, why and how?

What does climate change mean for snow-fed river basins?Climate change poses unique challenges in snow-fed river basins across the western United States because the majority of water supply originates as snow (Dettinger, Udall, & Georgakakos, 2015). In the Sierra Nevada, recent observations include changes in snow accumulation and snowmelt, and shifts in peak streamflow timing (Barnhart et al., 20
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Kelley Sterle, Wesley Kitlasten, Eric D. Morway, Richard G. Niswonger, Loretta Singletary
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Simulating selenium and nitrogen fate and transport in coupled stream-aquifer systems of irrigated regions

Elevated levels of selenium (Se) in aqueous environments can harm aquatic life and endanger livestock and human health. Although Se occurs naturally in the rocks and soils of many alluvial aquifers, mining and agricultural activities can increase its rate of mobilization and transport to surface waters. Attention is given here to regions where nonpoint source return flows from irrigated lands carr
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Christopher D. Shultz, Ryan T. Bailey, Timothy K. Gates, Brent E. Heesemann, Eric D. Morway
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Long-term trends of surface-water mercury and methylmercury concentrations downstream of historic mining within the Carson River watershed

The Carson River is a vital water resource for local municipalities and migratory birds travelling the Pacific Flyway. Historic mining practices that used mercury (Hg) to extract gold from Comstock Lode ore has left much of the river system heavily contaminated with Hg, a practice that continues in many parts of the world today. Between 1998 and 2013, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) col
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Eric D. Morway, Carl E. Thodal, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Evaluation of bias associated with capture maps derived from nonlinear groundwater flow models

The impact of groundwater withdrawal on surface water is a concern of water users and water managers, particularly in the arid western United States. Capture maps are useful tools to spatially assess the impact of groundwater pumping on water sources (e.g., streamflow depletion) and are being used more frequently for conjunctive management of surface water and groundwater. Capture maps have been d
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Cara Nadler, Kip K. Allander, Greg Pohll, Eric D. Morway, Ramon C. Naranjo, Justin Huntington
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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Managed aquifer recharge through off-season irrigation in agricultural regions

Options for increasing reservoir storage in developed regions are limited and prohibitively expensive. Projected increases in demand call for new long-term water storage to help sustain agriculture, municipalities, industry, and ecological services. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is becoming an integral component of water resources around the world. However, MAR faces challenges, including infrast
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Richard G. Niswonger, Eric D. Morway, Enrique Triana, Justin L. Huntington
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Water Resources Mission Area

Version 2.3.0 of Coupled Ground-Water and Surface-Water Flow Model Based on the Integration of the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) and the Modular Ground-Water Flow Model

GSFLOW is a coupled Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow model based on the integration of the U.S. Geological Survey Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS; Markstrom and others, 2015) and the U.S. Geological Survey Modular Groundwater Flow Model (MODFLOW-2005, Harbaugh, 2005; MODFLOW-NWT, Niswonger and others, 2011). In addition to the basic PRMS and MODFLOW simulation methods, several additio
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Water Resources Mission Area

MT3D-USGS: Groundwater Solute Transport Simulator for MODFLOW

MT3D-USGS is a USGS updated release of the groundwater solute transport code MT3DMS. MT3D-USGS includes new transport modeling capabilities to accommodate flow terms calculated by MODFLOW packages that were previously unsupported by MT3DMS and to provide greater flexibility in the simulation of solute transport and reactive solute transport.

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Water Resources Mission Area, Nevada Water Science Center

Science and Products