Reports

In 2009, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Geological Survey developed a plan to compare the effect of various streamgaging and water-quality collection techniques on streamflow and stream water-quality data for the Saginaw River, Michigan. The Saginaw River is the primary contributor of surface runoff to Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, draining approximately 70...

Juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) emigrating from natal tributaries of the Sacramento River may use a number of migration routes to negotiate the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (hereafter, "the Delta"), each of which may influence their probability of surviving. We applied a mark-recapture model to data from acoustically tagged juvenile late-fall Chinook salmon that...

The long-term viability of species and populations is related to their potential to migrate, reproduce, and adapt to environmental changes. In the southeast United States, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are providing resource managers with genetic information to improve the long-term survival and sustainability of the Nation's aquatic species. Research focused on native and...

In September 2010, the Fourmile Canyon fire burned about 23 percent of the Fourmile Creek watershed in Boulder County, Colo. Water-quality sampling of Fourmile Creek began within a month after the wildfire to assess its effects on surface-water chemistry. Water samples were collected from five sites along Fourmile Creek (above, within, and below the burned area) monthly during base flow...

The Sacramento River and its tributaries support populations of anadromous fish species including winter-run, spring-run, fall-run, and late fall–run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha); and steelhead (O. mykiss). Several of these species are listed as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), or both. These...

The Hopi Tribe depends on groundwater as their primary drinking-water source in the area of the Villages of Moenkopi, in northeastern Arizona. Growing concerns of the potential for uranium contamination at the Moenkopi water supply wells from the Tuba City Landfill prompted the need for an improved understanding of subsurface geology and groundwater near Moenkopi. Information in this...

A numerical transient model of the surficial and Floridan aquifer systems in east-central Florida was developed to (1) increase the understanding of water exchanges between the surficial and the Floridan aquifer systems, (2) assess the recharge rates to the surficial aquifer system from infiltration through the unsaturated zone and (3) obtain a simulation tool that could be used by water...

The Navajo (N) aquifer is an extensive aquifer and the primary source of groundwater in the 5,400-square-mile Black Mesa area in northeastern Arizona. Availability of water is an important issue in northeastern Arizona because of continued water requirements for industrial and municipal use by a growing population and because of low precipitation in the arid climate of the Black Mesa...

Increased demands for cleaner burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological advances in accessing unconventional hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations, led to an intense effort to find and extract natural gas from various underground sources around the country. One of these sources, the Marcellus Shale, located in the Allegheny Plateau, is undergoing extensive drilling...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the areas and (2) provide useful information to private...

The Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is part of the Geologic Hazards Assessments subactivity as funded by Congressional appropriation. Investigations are carried out in the USGS and with cooperators at the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, University of Hawaii Manoa and Hilo, University...

Groundwater samples were collected from 15 production wells and 1 spring at 9 national park units in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in July and August 2011 and analyzed to characterize the quality of these water supplies. The sample sites generally were selected to represent areas of potential effects on water quality by drilling and development of gas wells in Marcellus Shale...