Questions We Answer

The USGS Environmental Health Program seeks to understand how environmental factors, especially contaminants and pathogens, influence human health and ecosystems. It focuses on studying the distribution and effects of toxic substances, environmental stressors, and their pathways. The program prioritizes collaboration with State, Federal and local governments; Tribes; non-government organizations...

Critical minerals are essential to the Nation’s economy and security. Demand for critical minerals is increasing, and it is essential to balance the societal need for these minerals with efforts to understand the effects of mining on other natural resources and to develop techniques to minimize these effects. The USGS Minerals Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team (IST) focuses on the life...

The Environmental Health Program integrates multidisciplinary research to tackle the environmental challenges that impact the nation's natural resource assets. By providing comprehensive research and data, the program assesses both actual and perceived risks associated with environmental contaminants and pathogens while supporting a variety of uses of our natural resources.

To support the Department of Interior's bureaus, states, and local communities, we are developing 1) a document highlighting remote sensing approaches that can be leveraged for site prioritization, recovery design, and long-term assessments of recovery trends, and 2) data products of vegetation conditions, change, recovery potential, and risk of exotic plant invasion on mine lands. We will...

USGS scientists use innovative isotopic identification methods to determine mercury sources in air, water, sediments, and wildlife.

The public is concerned that uranium in natural geologic formations, mine tailings, dusts, water, and other geologic materials can pose a health hazard to humans and wildlife. Our specialized teams of hydrologists, chemists, and geologists working together at a field site in the Grand Canyon region of the United States have shown: Elevated uranium concentrations (above the drinking water standard)...

Science from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other entities has shown that a mixture of natural and synthetic estrogens and other similar chemicals are discharged from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to streams and rivers.

Livestock manure spills have been shown to result from events such as equipment failures, over-application of manure to agricultural fields, runoff from open feedlots, storage overflow, accidents with manure transporting equipment, and severe weather. Our specialized teams of hydrologists, chemists, biologists and geologists, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health...

Our specialized teams of hydrologists, chemists, and geologists working together at field sites in Northeastern US after Hurricane Sandy have shown: Metal contaminants were released to the environment after Hurricane Sandy due to some dune restoration activities. In other locations the storm actually decreased contaminant exposures to bottom dwelling aquatic biota. Natural disasters like...

A growing number of human gastrointestinal, respiratory, dermatologic, and neurologic effects, as well as dog and livestock illnesses and deaths, in the United States have been linked to exposures to algal blooms in recreational lakes and stock ponds. Some of the blooms contain cyanobacteria, which have the potential to produce cyanotoxins in freshwater systems. However, the connection between...

Safe Drinking Water Act compliance addresses the safety of public-supply water systems. The composition of public-supply drinking water is generally only tested at the treatment facility, and not at the tap in homes and businesses after traveling through the water distribution system. Only lead and copper are tested at a subset of residential and other taps. Testing of water in private wells is...

Our specialized teams of scientists are working in our laboratories and at field sites around the Great Lakes in collaboration with other federal and state resource agencies to document the prevalence of skin and liver tumors in fish. Tumor prevalence in white suckers ( Catostomus commersonii), a fish harvested as a food source by local communities, is related to the degree of urbanization in the...