Publications

The Menomonee River drainage basin in southeast Wisconsin is undergoing changes that may affect water quality. Several rehabilitation and flood-management projects are underway, including removal of concrete channels and the construction of floodwater retention basins. The city of Waukesha may begin discharging treated wastewater into Underwood Creek, thus approximately doubling the...

This report provides a regional assessment of groundwater quality of the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, based primarily on raw water samples collected by the NAWQA Program during 1995 through 2007. The NAWQA Program has published findings in local study-unit reports encompassing parts of the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system. Data collected from the aquifer system were used in...

Chlororespiration is a key component of remediation at many chloroethene-contaminated sites. In some instances, limited accumulation of reductive dechlorination daughter products may suggest that natural attenuation is not adequate for site remediation. This conclusion is justified when evidence for parent compound (tetrachloroethene, PCE, or trichloroethene, TCE) degradation is lacking...

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a significant organic carbon reservoir in many ecosystems, and its characteristics and sources determine many aspects of ecosystem health and water quality. Fluorescence spectroscopy methods can quantify and characterize the subset of the DOC pool that can absorb and re-emit electromagnetic energy as fluorescence and thus provide a rapid technique for

Tobit regression models were developed to predict the summed concentration of atrazine [6-chloro-N-ethyl-N'-(1-methylethyl)-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine] and its degradate deethylatrazine [6-chloro-N-(1-methylethyl)-1,3,5,-triazine-2,4-diamine] (DEA) in shallow groundwater underlying agricultural settings across the conterminous United States. The models were developed from atrazine and...

The U.S. Geological Survey and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services entered into a cooperative agreement to assist in the evaluation of remedy simulations of the MSGD aquifer that are being performed by various parties to track the remedial progress of the PCE plume. This report summarizes findings from this evaluation. Topics covered include description of groundwater...

In 2011, sediment data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Yellowstone River at the location of a proposed bypass chute. The sediment data were collected to provide an understanding of the sediment dynamics of the given reach of the Yellowstone River. Suspended-sediment concentrations collected at the three sites...

The Cuyahoga River within Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) is at times impaired for recreational use due to elevated concentrations of Escherichia coli (E. coli), a fecal-indicator bacterium. During the recreational seasons of mid-May through September during 2009–11, samples were collected 4 days per week and analyzed for E. coli concentrations at two sites within CVNP. Other water...

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has designated portions of the Illinois River in Peoria, Woodford, and Tazewell Counties, Illinois, as impaired owing to the presence of fecal coliform bacteria. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, examined the water quality in the Illinois River and major tributaries within a 47-mile...

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a bathymetric survey of the Lower Granite Reservoir, Washington, using a multibeam echosounder, and an underwater video mapping survey during autumn 2009 and winter 2010. The surveys were conducted as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's study on sediment deposition and control in the reservoir. The multibeam echosounder survey was performed in 1...

We investigate geologic controls on circulation in the shallow hydrothermal system of Masaya volcano, Nicaragua, and their relationship to surface diffuse degassing. On a local scale (~250 m), relatively impermeable normal faults dipping at ~60° control the flowpath of water vapor and other gases in the vadose zone. These shallow normal faults are identified by modeling of a NE-SW...

The upper Klamath Basin encompasses about 8,000 square miles, extending from the Cascade Range east to the Basin and Range geologic province in south-central Oregon and northern California. The geography of the basin is dominated by forested volcanic uplands separated by broad interior basins. Most of the interior basins once held broad shallow lakes and extensive wetlands, but most of...