Conference Papers

The U.S. Department of the Interior started a program in 1985 to identify effects of irrigation-induced trace constituents in water, bottom sediment and biota. The program was developed in response to concerns that contamination similar to that found in 1983 at Kesterson Reservoir in California might exist elsewhere. Studies are complete or underway for 26 sites in 15 western States...

Worldwide oil pollution has killed millions of marine birds in this century but it has been difficult to directly link these losses to population declines. Estimated bird losses from acute spills and chronic pollution are not precise because we usually do not know the proportion of birds killed at sea that are detected on beach surveys or the origin of those birds. Data required to...

No abstract.

Effluent from uranium-mine dewatering and acidic water released by a tailings-pond dike failure increased radionuclide activities in streamflow in the Puerco River in New Mexico and Arizona. Median dissolved gross-alpha activity in the streamflow was 1,130 picocuries per liter from 1975 to 1986 when mine discharges ceased and 6.2 picocuries per liter from 1986 to 1989. From 1975 to July...

Coastline comparison on 1951 and 1981 charts to determine erosion and accretion showed that ocean-facing coastal bluffs were retreating while deltas were rapidly expanding. Where the coast is fronted by a lagoon, and coast-parallel sand and gravel islands, bluff retreat was reduced. The extensive bluff erosion was volumetrically balanced by accretion at the mouths of deltas. Coastal...

No abstract available