Publications

Ecological impacts of water-quality problems have developed in the western United States resulting from the disposal of seleniferous agricultural wastewater in wetland areas. Overt effects of selenium toxicosis occurred at five areas where deformities of wild aquatic birds were similar to those first observed at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in the west-central San Joaquin Valley of

An experiment was designed to evaluate the changing chemical composition of the water pumped from a well screened in a physically and chemically heterogenous aquifer. Well F453-63, at the U.S. Geological Survey Toxic-Substances Hydrology research site located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was selected because it was known that the screen penetrated both the oxic and anoxic zones of the...

Groundwater underlying the valley of Pinal Creek downstream from Globe, Arizona, has been contaminated by low-pH metal-enriched wastewater from copper mining and ore processing at Miami, Arizona. At present, the acidity and most of the dissolved metal content, except for Mn, of the wastewater is removed by reactions with carbonate and other solids in the alluvial aquifer before the...

No abstract available.

The establishment of steady unsaturated flow in a centrifuge permits accurate measurement of small values of hydraulic conductivity (K). This method can provide a recharge determination if it is applied to an unsaturated core sample from a depth at which gravity alone drives the flow. A K value determined at the in situ water content indicates the long-term average recharge rate at a...

Sixty-three water samples collected during June to October 1982 from the Leviathan/Bryant Creek drainage basin were originally analyzed by simultaneous multielement direct-current plasma (DCP) atomic-emission spectrometry, flame atomic-absorption spectrometry, graphite-furnace atomic-absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) (thallium only), ultraviolet-visible spectrometry, and hydride-generation...

The geochemical evolution of low-molecular-weight organic acids in groundwater downgradient from a crude-oil spill near Bemidji, Minnesota, was studied over a five year period (1986–1990). The organic acids are metabolic intermediates of the degradation of components of the crude oil and are structurally related to hydrocarbon precursors. The concentrations of organic acids, particularly...

Herbicide interchange between a stream and the adjacent alluvial aquifer and quantification of herbicide bank storage during high streamflow were investigated at a research site on the Cedar River flood plain, 10 km southeast of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During high streamflow in March 1990, alachlor, atrazine, and metolachlor were detected at concentrations above background in water from...

Water and streambed-sediment samples were collected on March 9 and 10,1987 from one site upstream and three sites downstream of the discharge from a municipal wastewater-treatment plant on Rowlett Creek near Dallas, Texas. To extract and separate organic compounds, purgeand-trap, closed-loop stripping, and pH-adjusted solvent extraction methods were used for water samples; and a Soxhlet...

The genetic population structure of the recently introduced Asian clam, Potamocorbula amurensis, in San Francisco Bay was described using starch gel electrophoresis at eight presumptive loci. Specimens were taken from five environmentally distinct sites located throughout the bay. The population maintains a high degree of genetic variation, with a mean heterozygosity of 0.295, a mean...

This report presents the results of a study to determine whether shallow ground water at Picatinny Arsenal Morris County, New Jersey, has been con- taminated as a result of operations at the open burning area, which is used for burning of waste explosives and materials contaminated with explosives. Results of previous investigations indicate that the soil in this area is contaminated...

Hypothesized to be derived from Cretaceous marine sedimentary rocks, selenium contamination of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge is traced through irrigation drainage to the source bedrock of the California Coast Ranges. This biogeochemical pathway of selenium is defined here as the 'Kesterson effect.' At the refuge ponds, this effect culminated in 1983 in a 64% rate of deformity...