Publications

Water-quality data have been collected in the North Santiam River basin since 1998. During water year 2007, eight monitoring stations were operated throughout the basin. Streamflow data were collected at all but one of these sites. This report presents a comparison of the water-quality and streamflow data collected at each monitoring station from monitor installation through water year...

The Delaware River Basin Commission is charged with establishing water-quality objectives for the tidal and non-tidal portions of the Delaware River, which include developing nutrient standards that are scientifically defensible. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Delaware River Basin Commission and the Academy of Natural Sciences, studied the effects of nutrient...

Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have identified coal-tar-based sealcoat-the black, viscous liquid sprayed or painted on asphalt pavement such as parking lots-as a major source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination in urban areas for large parts of the Nation. Several PAHs are suspected human carcinogens and are toxic to aquatic life.

Beginning in 2005, water availability and use were assessed for the U.S. part of the Great Lakes Basin through the Great Lakes Basin Pilot of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) national assessment of water availability and use. The goals of a national assessment of water availability and use are to clarify our understanding of water-availability status and trends and improve our ability to...

The principal source of streamflow during periods of low flow in the Susquehanna River basin of New York is the discharge of groundwater from sand-and-gravel deposits. Spatial variation in low flow is mostly a function of differences in three watershed properties: the amount of water that is introduced to the watershed and available for runoff, the extent of surficial sand and gravel...

Late during the night of August 9, 2009, two storm systems intersected over western New York and produced torrential rain that caused severe flash flooding during the early morning hours of August 10 in parts of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, and Erie Counties. Nearly 6 inches of rain fell in 1.5 hours as recorded by a National Weather Service weather observer in Perrysburg, which lies between...

Previous water-quality assessments reported elevated concentrations of nitrate and methane in water from domestic wells screened in shallow zones of the Wasatch Formation, Garfield County, Colorado. In 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, analyzed samples collected from 26 domestic wells for a diverse set of...

This report documents selected age data interpreted from measured concentrations of environmental tracers in groundwater from 1,399 National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program groundwater sites across the United States. The tracers of interest were chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and tritium/helium-3 (3H/3He). Tracer data compiled for this analysis primarily...

No abstract available.

Lake Maumelle is one of two principal drinking-water supplies for the Little Rock and North Little Rock metropolitan areas. Lake Maumelle and the Maumelle River (its primary tributary) are more pristine than most other reservoirs and streams in the region. However, as the Lake Maumelle watershed becomes increasingly more urbanized and timber harvesting becomes more frequent, concerns...

Phosphorus from natural and human sources is likely to be discharged from groundwater to streams in certain geochemical environments. Water-quality data collected from 1991 through 2007 in paired networks of groundwater and streams in different hydrogeologic and land-use settings of the Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Valley and Ridge Physiographic Provinces in the eastern United States were...

During 2007 and 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, collected quarterly depth-discrete measurements of fluid pressure and temperature in six boreholes located in the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer of Idaho. Each borehole was instrumented with a multilevel monitoring system consisting of a series of valved measurement ports, packer...