Leland Fuhrig

The Issue: The White River/Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park currently uses surface water for supplying water to local visitor and operational facilities. The Park is considering instead to use groundwater supplies that would likely be more resilient and less prone to contamination, but they need a better understanding of groundwater in the upper White River watershed to assure that park...

The Issue: Past activities at Joint Base Lewis–McChord (JBLM)—located in west-central Washington—resulted in releases of hazardous waste and contaminants to the environment, and the most recent chemical of concern is per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS can enter groundwater and travel through the subsurface. Water-resource managers need to understand where groundwater flows in order...

The Issue: The Quillayute River supports habitat for migrating, spawning, and rearing steelhead and salmon. All six miles of the river are influenced by tides, which influence its stage, discharge, and exchange with groundwater. The Quillayute River, like many salmonid-bearing rivers in the Pacific Northwest, is projected to warm in the coming decades due to projected increases in atmospheric...

The Issue: Guemes Island is an 8.2-square-mile island in the northern part of Puget Sound in western Washington State. The population of the island is increasing, as is the demand for groundwater, which is the island's sole source of freshwater. Continued growth and development of the island, particularly in nearshore areas, has led to the increasing failure of nearshore wells due to seawater...

This USGS investigation will examine the hydraulic properties of the Rush Springs aquifer underlying Fort Sill Apache tribal lands to determine their potential for groundwater development. The information gathered from this investigation will assist the Fort Sill Apache Tribe in identifying well locations with optimal long-term pumping capacity and water quality.