Water Resources
Publications
This list of Water Resources Mission Area publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists. A searchable database of all USGS publications can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Methods for estimating regional coefficient of skewness for unregulated streams in New England, based on data through water year 2011
The magnitude of annual exceedance probability floods is greatly affected by the coefficient of skewness (skew) of the annual peak flows at a streamgage. Standard flood frequency methods recommend weighting the station skew with a regional skew to better represent regional and stable conditions. This study presents an updated analysis of a...
Veilleux, Andrea G.; Zarriello, Phillip J.; Hodgkins, Glenn A.; Ahearn, Elizabeth A.; Olson, Scott A.; Cohn, Timothy A.
Potentiometric surface of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, spring 2016
A potentiometric surface map for spring 2016 was created for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer using selected available groundwater-altitude data from wells and surface-water-altitude data from streamgages. Most of the wells were measured annually or one time after installation, but some wells were measured more than one time or...
McGuire, Virginia L.; Seanor, Ronald C.; Asquith, William H.; Kress, Wade H.; Strauch, Kellan R.
Guidelines and standard procedures for high-frequency groundwater-quality monitoring stations—Design, operation, and record computation
High-frequency water-quality monitoring stations measure and transmit data, often in near real-time, from a wide range of aquatic environments to assess the quality of the Nation’s water resources. Common instrumentation for high-frequency water-quality data collection uses a multi-parameter sonde, which typically has sensors that measure and...
Mathany, Timothy M.; Saraceno, John Franco; Kulongoski, Justin T.
Evaluation of chemical and hydrologic processes in the eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer based on results from geochemical modeling, Idaho National Laboratory, eastern Idaho
Nuclear research activities at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) produced liquid and solid chemical and radiochemical wastes that were disposed to the subsurface resulting in detectable concentrations of some waste constituents in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer. These waste constituents may affect...
Rattray, Gordon W.
Controls on spatial and temporal variations of brine discharge to the Dolores River in the Paradox Valley, Colorado, 2016–18
The Paradox Valley in southwestern Colorado is a collapsed anticline formed by movement of the salt-rich Paradox Formation at the core of the anticline. The salinity of the Dolores River, a tributary of the Colorado River, increases substantially as it crosses the valley because of discharge of brine-rich groundwater derived from the underlying...
Mast, M. Alisa; Terry, Neil
Laboratory assessment of alternative stream velocity measurement methods
Understanding streamflow in montane watersheds on regional scales is often incomplete due to a lack of data for small-order streams that link precipitation and snowmelt processes to main stem discharge. This data deficiency is attributed to the prohibitive cost of conventional streamflow measurement methods and the remote location of many small...
Hundt, Stephen; Blasch, Kyle Arsenic variability and groundwater age in three water supply wells in southeast New Hampshire
Three wells in New Hampshire were sampled bimonthly over three years to evaluate the temporal variability of arsenic concentrations and groundwater age. All samples had measurable concentrations of arsenic throughout the entire sampling period and concentrations in individual wells varied, on average, by more than 7 µg/L. High arsenic...
Levitt, Joseph; Degnan, James; Flanagan, Sarah; Jurgens, Bryant
Numerical model simulations of potential changes in water levels and capture of natural discharge from groundwater withdrawals in Snake Valley and adjacent areas, Utah and Nevada
The National Park Service (NPS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are concerned about cumulative effects of groundwater development on groundwater-dependent resources managed by, and other groundwater resources of interest to, these agencies in Snake Valley and adjacent areas, Utah and Nevada. Of particular concern to the NPS and BLM are...
Masbruch, Melissa D.
Analysis of groundwater response to tidal fluctuations, Operable Unit 1, Naval Base Kitsap, Keyport, Washington
Chlorinated volatile organic compounds have affected groundwater beneath a former 9-acre landfill at Operable Unit 1 (OU 1) of Naval Base Kitsap (NBK) Keyport, in Keyport, Washington. The landfill was the primary disposal area for domestic and industrial waste generated by NBK Keyport from the 1930s through 1973. Naval Facilities Engineering...
Opatz, Chad C.; Dinicola, Richard S.
Delineation of spatial extent, depth, thickness, and potential volume of aquifers used for domestic and public water-supply in the Central Valley, California
Identification of the groundwater resources used for drinking-water supplies is essential for the design of strategies to manage those resources. In this study, the spatial extent, depths, thicknesses, and volumes of groundwater aquifers used for domestic and public drinking-water supply were estimated from locations and well-construction data...
Voss, Stefan; Jurgens, Bryant C.; Fram, Miranda S.; Bennett V, George L.
Tritium as an indicator of modern, mixed, and premodern groundwater age
Categorical classification of groundwater age is often used for the assessment and understanding of groundwater resources. This report presents a tritium-based age classification system for the conterminous United States based on tritium (3H) thresholds that vary in space and time: modern (recharged in 1953 or later), if the measured value is...
Lindsey, Bruce D.; Jurgens, Bryant C.; Belitz, Kenneth
Evaluation of groundwater-flow models for estimating drawdown from proposed groundwater development in Tule Desert, Nevada
At the request of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is releasing with this open-file report (OFR) a previously unpublished review and comparison of two numerical models for Tule Desert, Nevada. The original review was performed in spring 2013, and only minor editorial revisions were made in the current (2019)...
Halford, K.J.