Publications

Fine sediment can infiltrate into river substrate that salmonid fish species (Oncorhynchus spp.) use to spawn. High levels of sediment infiltration can increase egg-to-fry mortality, which corresponds to the period when salmonids are still residing in the subsurface gravels. This study quantifies fine sediment infiltration of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) spawning habitat during the eg

The condition of surface water storage in lakes and impoundments is used as an index of drought in the Massachusetts drought management plan. The U.S. Geological Survey visited 28 of these lakes and impoundments at 14 single and multiple waterbody systems to evaluate their appropriateness for characterizing drought. The data collection and computation methods at each system were then reviewed and

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, performed record extensions on groundwater levels at select wells using the Maintenance of Variance Extension type 1 (MOVE.1) method. The groundwater levels estimated from these record extensions were used to compute monthly percentiles to improve future determinations of a groundwater index.

Elevated nitrogen loads are pervasive in the Long Island Sound, an estuary that receives freshwater and nutrients from both surface-water and groundwater discharge. Surface-water nitrogen loads to the Long Island Sound are relatively well characterized, but less is known about groundwater-transported nitrogen loads. Prior work on the northern shore of Long Island Sound (Connecticut and areas of Ne

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 hydrocarbons,

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges can be a source of organic contaminants, including pesticides, to rivers. An integrated model was developed for the Potomac River watershed (PRW) to determine the amount of accumulated wastewater percentage of streamflow (ACCWW) and calculate predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) for 14 pesticides in non-tidal National Hydrography Dataset Plus V

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The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Colorado Springs Utilities and Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise, synthesized previous studies and evaluated recent monitoring data to understand the distribution of fish and invertebrates in the Fountain Creek Basin and documented response to streamflow, water temperature, and water quality. The goal was to identify opportunities for aligning d

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operated 11,850 continuous surface-water monitoring locations (streamgages) across the United States in 2023. The streamgages provide information on river height and streamflow, typically at 15-minute intervals. This information is then made available to everyone, most of it delivered nearly in realtime on the USGS National Water Dashboard.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), conducted a study to describe the current understanding of the regional groundwater system of the lower Duwamish River valley and groundwater and surface-water interactions in the lower Duwamish Waterway. The lower Duwamish Waterway is the final 5-mile (mi) reach of the Duwamish River befor

The presence of long-screened wells with a surrounding sand pack can have a major effect on the redistribution of contaminants in groundwater, particularly when the wells are set in low-hydraulic conductivity aquifers. Such redistribution, or cross contamination, can occur through vertical flow and advective transport or by in-well mixing via multiple non-advective transport processes. A multi-met

Understanding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) mass distribution in surface and groundwater systems can support source prioritization, load reduction, and water management. Thirteen sites within an urban catchment were sampled utilizing a time-of-travel sampling approach to minimize the influence of subdaily fluctuations in mass from PFAS point sources and to quantify PFAS and ancillary