Publications

Memphis, the largest city in the state of Tennessee, and its surrounding suburbs depend on a confined aquifer, the Memphis aquifer, for drinking water. Concern over the potential for downward movement of water from an overlying shallow aquifer to the underlying Memphis aquifer provided impetus for monitoring groundwater quality within the shallow aquifer. The occurrence of volatile...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, developed and calibrated a Soil and Water Assessment Tool watershed model of the upper Guadalupe River watershed in south-central Texas to simulate streamflow and the effects of brush management on water yields in the watershed and to Canyon Lake for...

In 2010, data on physical habitat, water quality, and riverine biological assemblages were collected at selected reaches in four locations (Kleven, Sheyenne, Cooperstown, and West Fargo) on the Sheyenne River in east-central North Dakota. Three of the locations (Kleven, Sheyenne, and Cooperstown) are above Baldhill Dam and one location (West Fargo) is below Baldhill Dam on the Sheyenne...

Stormwater in the Denver area was sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, in a network of 5 monitoring stations - 3 on the South Platte River and 2 on streams tributary to the South Platte River, Sand Creek, and Toll Gate Creek beginning in January 2006 and continuing through December 2010. Stormwater samples were analyzed...

The hydrodynamic model of Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, Oregon, was used to run 384 realizations of a numerical tracer experiment in order to understand the relative effects of wind, lake elevation, and Williamson River inflow on flow and transport (the movement of water and passively transported constituents) through the Williamson River Delta. Significant findings from this study...

Longitudinal profiles of near-streambed and near-surface temperatures were collected for selected reaches of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers, Washington, during August 2011 to facilitate development of a stream temperature model near the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers. Temperature was measured using a probe with an internal datalogger towed behind a watercraft moving...

The Rhode Island Water Resources Board planned to develop public water-supply wells in the Big River Management Area in Kent County, Rhode Island. Research in the United States and abroad indicates that groundwater withdrawal has the potential to affect wetland hydrology and related processes. In May 2008, the Rhode Island Water Resources Board, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, compared two methods for estimating base flow in three reaches of the South Platte River between Denver and Kersey, Colorado. The two methods compared in this study are the Mass Balance and the Pilot Point methods. Base-flow estimates made with the two methods were based upon a 54-year period of record...

Historic scour was investigated at 231 bridges in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain physiographic provinces of South Carolina by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation. These investigations led to the development of field-derived envelope curves that provided supplementary tools to assess the potential for scour at bridges in South...

The extent and duration of the flooded area were compared in two reference wetlands and nine wetlands in well fields in the northern Tampa Bay region, Florida, to determine whether reductions in well-field groundwater-withdrawal rates resulted in increases in wetland flooded area. Flooded area, expressed as a percentage of the total wetland area, was used to provide a quantitative and...

Rates of trichloroethene (TCE) mass transformed by naturally occurring biodegradation processes in a fractured rock aquifer underlying a former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) site in West Trenton, New Jersey, were estimated. The methodology included (1) dividing the site into eight elements of equal size and vertically integrating observed concentrations of two daughter products of TCE

Mercury (Hg) is one of the leading water quality concerns in surface waters of the United States. Although watershed-scale Hg cycling research has increased in the past two decades, advances in modeling watershed Hg processes in diverse physiographic regions, spatial scales, and land cover types are needed. The goal of this study was to assess Hg cycling in a Coastal Plain system using