Publications

Ground water is one of the Nation's most important natural resources. It provides about 40 percent of our Nation's public water supply. Currently, nearly one-half of New Jersey's drinking-water is supplied by over 300,000 wells that serve more than 4.3 million people (John P. Nawyn, U.S. Geological Survey, written commun., 2007). New Jersey's population is projected to grow by more than...

Six reservoirs in North Carolina discharge into the Pee Dee River, which flows 160 miles through South Carolina to the coastal communities near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. During the Southeast's record-breaking drought from 1998 to 2003, salinity intrusions inundated a coastal municipal freshwater intake, limiting water supplies. To evaluate the effects of regulated flows of the Pee...

Macroinvertebrate samples were collected at 15 stream sites representing 11 different watersheds in Johnson County, Kansas, in 2003 and 2004 to assess biological conditions in streams and relations to environmental variables. Published data from an additional seven stream sites, one in Johnson County, Kansas, and six others in adjacent Cass and Jackson Counties in Missouri also were...

Johnson County is one of the fastest growing and most populated counties in Kansas. Urban development affects streams by altering stream hydrology, geomorphology, water chemistry, and habitat, which then can lead to adverse effects on fish and macroinvertebrate communities. In addition, increasing sources of contaminants in urbanizing streams results in public-health concerns associated...

This report characterizes the effects of historical mining and abandoned mine drainage (AMD) on streamflow and water quality and evaluates potential strategies for AMD abatement in the 14-square-mile Newport Creek Basin and 7.6-square-mile Nanticoke Creek Basin. Both basins are mostly within the Northern Anthracite Coal Field and drain to the Susquehanna River in central Luzerne County...

Mercury in precipitation was monitored during 2001 through 2003 at four locations in Indiana as part of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program-Mercury Deposition Network (NADP-MDN). Monitoring stations were operated at Roush Lake near Huntington, Clifty Falls State Park near Madison, Monroe County Regional Airport near Bloomington, and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore near Porter...

Water samples were collected from 20 community water-supply wells in New Jersey to assess the chemical quality of the water before and after chlorination, to characterize the types of organic carbon present, and to determine the disinfection by-product formation potential. Water from the selected wells previously had been shown to contain concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC)...

In 1998, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Colorado Springs City Engineering, began a study of the Fountain and Monument Creek watersheds to characterize water quality and suspended-sediment conditions in the watershed for different flow regimes, with an emphasis on characterizing water quality during storm runoff. Water-quality and suspended-sediment samples were collected...

In January 2001, State oil and gas inspectors noted bubbles of natural gas in well water during a complaint investigation near Tioga Junction, Tioga County, north-central Pa. By 2004, the gas occurrence in ground water and accumulation in homes was a safety concern; inspectors were taking action to plug abandoned gas wells and collect gas samples. The origins of the natural-gas problems...

Results reported herein include trace element concentrations in sediment and in the clam Macoma petalum (formerly reported as Macoma balthica (Cohen and Carlton 1995)), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure for a mudflat one kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in South San Francisco Bay. This...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with local and other agencies, collects data at selected lakes throughout Wisconsin. These data, accumulated over many years, provide a data base for developing an improved understanding of the water quality of lakes. To make these data available to interested parties outside the USGS, the data are published annually in this report series...

Former commercial salt ponds in Alviso, California, now are operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to provide habitat for birds. The USFWS has modified the operation of the ponds to prevent exceedingly high salinity. Ponds that were formerly hydraulically isolated from South San Francisco Bay and adjacent sloughs now are managed as flow-through ponds, and some are allowed...