Pennsylvania Waters - Spring 2025 - Issue 14
York County Water Quality Monitoring
A new interactive dashboard from USGS presents monitoring data since 2019 for six watersheds in York County, Pennsylvania, including sediment and nutrient concentrations, loads, and yields.
Drought Watch/Warning Continues for 29 Pennsylvania Counties
USGS groundwater and surface water monitoring data contributed to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (PaDEP) April 2, 2025, continuation of drought watches and warnings for 29 Pennsylvania counties. Watches were lifted for six counties.
Pennsylvania's Long-Term Surface-Water Quality Network
A new USGS geonarrative presents the history of, and findings from, monitoring of the quality of water in Pennsylvania’s rivers, streams, and lakes.
Water Quality in Chesapeake's Small Watersheds Gets a Closer Look
Highlights USGS cooperation with York County, Pennsylvania
*Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Hydrologic investigations and a preliminary conceptual model of the groundwater system at North Penn Area 1 Superfund Site, Souderton, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted hydrogeologic investigations, reviewed existing data, and developed a preliminary conceptual model of the groundwater system as part of technical support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the North Penn Area 1 Superfund Site (hereafter, the NP1 Site) located within the Borough of Souderton in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Field work
Using Continuous Water Quality to Guide Conservation Efforts
This geonarrative describes USGS data collection and analysis efforts to assess water-quality conditions and measure the effects of conservation practices in the Chiques and Swatara Creek watersheds in central Pennsylvania, both within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Predicted potential for aquatic exposure effects of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in Pennsylvania’s statewide network of streams
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are contaminants that can lead to adverse health effects in aquatic organisms, including reproductive toxicity and developmental abnormalities. To assess the ecological health risk of PFAS in Pennsylvania stream surface water, we conducted a comprehensive analysis that included both measured and predicted estimates. The potential combined exposure effects
Time of travel of releases from Lake Wallenpaupack to the U.S. Geological Survey’s streamgage monitoring location on the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey
In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) carried out a hydraulic study within the upper Delaware River Basin for the purpose of determining the time of travel for water releases from the Brookfield Renewable U.S. hydroelectric plant at Lake Wallenpaupack, Pennsylvania, to reach the USGS streamgage located on the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey (site number 01438500). From September 19 to
USGS releases a comprehensive look at water resources in the United States
RESTON, Va. — The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) today released the National Water Availability Assessment, a pioneering scientific overview of water availability that offers first-of-its-kind insights into the balance between water supply and demand across the conterminous United States.
The state of the science and practice of stream restoration in the Chesapeake: Lessons learned to inform better implementation, assessment and outcomes
The Chesapeake Bay Program’s (CBP) Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) organized and led a workshop on the science and practice of stream restoration in order to summarize the state of knowledge in order to identify ways to improve stream restoration outcomes. The workshop identified a general framework for explaining the main factors leading to stream restoration outcomes: stream degr
Temporal analysis of water chemistry and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) health at two sites with divergent land use in the Susquehanna River watershed, Pennsylvania, USA
Monitoring wild fish health and exposure effects in impacted rivers and streams with differing land use has become a valuable research tool. Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) are a sensitive, indicator species that exhibit signs of immunosuppression and endocrine disruption in response to water quality changes and contaminant exposure. To determine the impact of agriculture and development on
Increasing phosphorus loss despite widespread concentration decline in US rivers
The loss of phosphorous (P) from the land to aquatic systems has polluted waters and threatened food production worldwide. Systematic trend analysis of P, a nonrenewable resource, has been challenging, primarily due to sparse and inconsistent historical data. Here, we leveraged intensive hydrometeorological data and the recent renaissance of deep learning approaches to fill data gaps and reconstru
What have we lost? Modeling dam impacts on American shad populations through their native range
American shad (Alosa sapidissima) are native to the east coast of North America from the St. Johns River, Florida, to the St. Lawrence River region in Canada. Since the 1800s, dams have reduced access to spawning habitat. To assess the impact of dams, we estimated the historically accessed spawning habitat in coastal rivers (485,618 river segments with 21,113 current dams) based on (i) width, (ii)
Cancer risk and estimated lithium exposure in drinking groundwater in the US
Importance Lithium is a naturally occurring element in drinking water and is commonly used as a mood-stabilizing medication. Although clinical studies have reported associations between receiving lithium treatment and reduced cancer risk among patients with bipolar disorder, to our knowledge, the association between environmental lithium exposure and cancer risk has never been studied in the gene
The abandoned mine inventory of the United States—A brief summary
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 required the Secretary of the Interior to establish a program to inventory abandoned hard-rock mines in the United States. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance asked the U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Deposit Database project (USMIN) to use existing data sources to build an inventory of all individual ab
Water-quality data for selected small tributaries to the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, Pennsylvania and New York, 2012-2015
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected stream samples at 19 sites in tributaries to the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River during 2012-15 in cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS) through the USGS-NPS Water-Quality Partnership to provide data on existing water-quality in small watersheds not previously characterized and where there was potential for unconventional gas deve
@usgs_pa - Recent Instagram* posts
- Groundwater Quality Network Expands
- New Supergage in Crawford County
- Hydrologic Imagery Visualization and Information System (HIVIS)
- and more @usgs_pa
*Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.