Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, conducted a reconnaissance study to determine the occurrence of emerging contaminants in water and bed sediment within the Missouri River upstream and downstream from the cities of Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota, and upstream from the city of Fort Yates, North Dakota, during September-October 2007...

Some reaches of Clear Creek above U.S. Highway 395 have experienced severe erosion as a result of fires, extreme precipitation events, and past and current human activities in the basin. Previous evaluations of erosion in the basin have concluded that most of the sediment produced and transported in the basin was associated with U.S. Highway 50, a four-lane highway that roughly parallels...

Ground-water quality in the approximately 1,000-square-mile Upper Santa Ana Watershed study unit (USAW) was investigated from November 2006 through March 2007 as part of the Priority Basin Project of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The GAMA Priority Basin project was developed in response to the Groundwater Quality Monitoring Act of 2001, and is being...

The Coastal Plain aquifers of New Jersey provide an important source of water for more than 2 million people. Steadily increasing withdrawals from the late 1800s to the early 1990s resulted in declining water levels and the formation of regional cones of depression. In addition to decreasing water supplies, declining water levels in the confined aquifers have led to reversals in natural...

The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources approved instream-flow appropriations on the Platte River to maintain fish communities, whooping crane roost habitat, and wet meadows used by several wild bird species. In the lower Platte River region, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission owns an appropriation filed to maintain streamflow for fish communities between the Platte River...

The perennial or intermittent status of a stream has bearing on many regulatory requirements. Because of changing technologies over time, cartographic representation of perennial/intermittent status of streams on U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps is not always accurate and (or) consistent from one map sheet to another. Idaho Administrative Code defines an intermittent stream...

The upper Humboldt River basin encompasses 4,364 square miles in northeastern Nevada, and it comprises the headwaters area of the Humboldt River. Nearly all flow of the river originates in this area. The upper Humboldt River basin consists of several structural basins, in places greater than 5,000 feet deep, in which basin-fill deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age and volcanic rocks...

Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR) encompasses about 1.1 million acres (including Fort Peck Reservoir on the Missouri River) in northeastern Montana. To ensure that sufficient streamflow remains in the tributary streams to maintain the riparian corridors, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is negotiating water-rights issues with the Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission...

Many State and Federal agencies use information regarding the locations of streams having intermittent or perennial flow when making management and regulatory decisions. For example, the application of some Idaho water quality standards depends on whether streams are intermittent. Idaho Administrative Code defines an intermittent stream as one having a 7-day, 2-year low flow (7Q2) less...

Discharge and water-quality data collected from six streamflow-gaging stations were used in combination with the LOADEST software to provide an estimate of total (dissolved + particulate) selenium (Se) load to the south arm of Great Salt Lake (GSL) from May 2006 through March 2008. Total estimated Se load to GSL during this time period was 2,370 kilograms (kg). The 12-month estimated Se...

In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey began a pilot study for the National Assessment of Water Availability and Use Program to assess the availability of water and water use in the Great Lakes Basin. Part of the study involves constructing a ground-water flow model for the Lake Michigan part of the Basin. Most ground-water flow occurs in the glacial sediments above the bedrock formations...

Water samples for tritium/helium-3 age dating were collected from 12 shallow monitoring wells in the Portland basin, Oregon, in 1997, and again in 1998. Robust tritium/helium-3 apparent (piston-flow) ages were obtained for water samples from 10 of the 12 wells; apparent ages ranged from 1.1 to 21.2 years. Method precision was demonstrated by close agreement between data collected in 1997...