Images

The USGS R/V Peterson conducts monthly cruises covering the San Francisco Estuary up to the Sacramento River at Rio Vista, California. The USGS has been researching and monitoring the San Francisco Estuary since 1969.

Photograph of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. Photo taken on September 8, 2023.

Image of pipettors used in the laboratory. Pipettes are stored on charging docking stations. 

Graph of decadal change in Radium concentration compared to road salt application rate (Lindsay and others, 2021). Increases in concentrations of radium are correlated with road-salt application, and multiple lines of evidence support that the relation is causal. 

Concentrations of strontium in samples of groundwater from drinking-water wells and shallow monitoring wells.

Pole Bridge Creek is one of the sites investigated in the USGS Regional Stream Quality Assessment, during which water quality and ecological condition were sampled.

Sugar Creek, near New Palestine, Indiana. Sugar Creek is part of a long-term USGS stream monitoring project, and was one of 72 U.S.

Photo of stream in urban environment with green lawn beside it. Photo credit: Alan Cressler USGS

Theresa Armijo, USGS, collecting water-quality samples from the Connecticut River by USGS gage 01184000, Connecticut River near Thompsonville 

David Sullivan, USGS, using an ice bar to chip away at the ice built up on the trail to get down to the water-quality sampling site at USGS gage Connecticut River near Thompsonville, CT

Brittney Izbicki, USGS, at the edge of the ice in the Connecticut River, preparing to collect water-quality samples.

Colin Sweeney, USGS, collecting water-quality samples from the Connecticut River, CT

Overview of Water Quality in Principal Aquifers

Hormones and pharmaceuticals, widely used for treatment of humans, domestic animals, and livestock, have the potential to enter the environment, including groundwater. In 2009, nearly 70% of Americans took at least one prescription drug, and more than half took 2 or more.

Dead Run is an urban creek in Catonsville, Maryland, near Baltimore. Research has found that about half of the bed sediment originates as particulate matter on pavement that then is washed into the creek via storm drains.

Dead Run is an urban creek in Catonsville, Maryland, near Baltimore. Research has found that about half of the bed sediment originates as particulate matter on pavement that then is washed into the creek via storm drains.

Dead Run is an urban creek in Catonsville, Maryland, near Baltimore. Research has found that about half of the bed sediment originates as particulate matter on pavement that then is washed into the creek via storm drains.

Dead Run is an urban creek in Catonsville, Maryland, near Baltimore. Research has found that about half of the bed sediment originates as particulate matter on pavement that then is washed into the creek via storm drains.

Dead Run is an urban creek in Catonsville, Maryland, near Baltimore. Research has found that about half of the bed sediment originates as particulate matter on pavement that then is washed into the creek via storm drains.

Harmful algal blooms turn water in Milford Lake emerald green

Photo of a mesocosm like utilized in the study. The rocks are colonized with natural stream communities of aquatic insects. Fresh stream water is circulated through the mesocosm and individual mesocosms are dosed with different concentrations of a neonicotinoid compound.