Publications

This fact sheet describes the Water Science Strategy, presented in detail in Circular 1383-G, "U.S. Geological Survey Water Science Strategy--Observing, Understanding, Predicting, and Delivering Water Science to the Nation." This fact sheet looks at the relevant issues facing society and describes the strategy built around observing, understanding, predicting, and delivering water...

Availability of water in the Rio Grande Basin has long been a primary concern for water-resource managers. The transport and delivery of water in the basin have been engineered by using reservoirs, irrigation canals and drains, and transmountain-water diversions to meet the agricultural, residential, and industrial demand. In contrast, despite the widespread recognition of critical water...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted velocity, water-quality, and bathymetric surveys from spring 2010 to summer 2011 in the Grays Landing and Maxwell navigation pools of the Monongahela River, Pennsylvania, and selected tributaries in response to elevated levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) recorded in early September 2009. Velocity data were collected using an Acoustic...

Wastewater discharges to the Assabet River contribute substantial amounts of phosphorus, which support accumulations of nuisance aquatic plants that are most evident in the river’s impounded reaches during the growing season. To restore the Assabet River’s water quality and aesthetics, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency required the major wastewater-treatment plants in the drainage...

A new sample collection system was developed to improve the representation of sediment in stormwater by integrating the entire water column. The depth-integrated sampler arm (DISA) was able to mitigate sediment stratification bias in storm water, thereby improving the characterization of particle size distribution from urban source areas. Collector streets had the lowest median particle...

This section of chapter 5 of the National Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data (NFM) describes the field procedures for collecting small-volume samples using a syringe-tip filtration method. The samples are sent to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) for analysis of organic compounds by direct aqueous injection high-performance...

Simply stated, groundwater recharge is the addition of water to the groundwater system. Most of the water that is potentially available for recharging the groundwater system in Montgomery and adjacent counties in southeast Texas moves relatively rapidly from land surface to surface-water bodies and sustains streamflow, lake levels, and wetlands. Recharge in southeast Texas is generally...

Unconventional natural gas and oil resources in the United States are important components of a national energy program. While the Nation seeks greater energy independence and greener sources of energy, Federal agencies with environmental responsibilities, state and local regulators and water-resource agencies, and citizens throughout areas of unconventional shale gas development have...

The aquifers in the Nacatoch Sand and Tokio Formation in southwestern Arkansas and the Nacatoch Sand in northeastern Arkansas are sources of water for industrial, public supply, domestic, and agricultural uses. Potentiometric-surface maps were constructed from water-level measurements made in 47 wells completed in the Nacatoch Sand and 45 wells completed in the Tokio Formation during...

A regional assessment of multi-decadal changes in nitrate concentrations was done using historical data and a spatially stratified non-biased approach. Data were stratified into physiographic subregions on the basis of geomorphology and soils data to represent zones of historical recharge and discharge patterns in the basin. Data were also stratified by depth to represent a shallow zone...

The Floridan aquifer system (FAS) is receiving increased attention as a result of regulatory restrictions on water-supply withdrawals and treated wastewater management practices. The South Florida Water Management District’s Regional Water Availability Rule, adopted in 2007, restricts urban withdrawals from the shallower Biscayne aquifer to pre-April 2006 levels throughout southeast...

For more than a decade, the National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs) have been estimating spatially distributed rainfall by applying quality-control procedures to radar-indicated rainfall estimates in the eastern United States and other best practices in the western United States to producea national Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (QPE) (National Weather Service...