Publications

The Hanalei River on the island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i was designated an American Heritage River in 1998, providing special attention to natural resource protection, economic revitalization, and historic and cultural preservation. Agricultural, urban, and tourism-related activities are potential sources of contamination within the Hanalei River watershed. The objective of this study was to...

The Arroyo Colorado is in the lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas and extends from near Mission, Texas, eastward to the Laguna Madre estuarine and coastal marine system, which separates Padre Island from the Texas mainland. Streamflow in the Arroyo Colorado primarily is sustained by effluent from municipal wastewater-treatment plants along the stream banks. Since 1986, the tidal...

During July 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, conducted a reconnaissance study in the Estancia Valley in central New Mexico to characterize water quality using time-domain electromagnetic (TDEM) surface-geophysical soundings. TDEM sounding is one of a number of surface geophysical methods that provide a...

The Nacatoch Sand and Tokio Formation aquifers in southwestern Arkansas and the Nacatoch Sand aquifer in northeastern Arkansas are sources of water for industrial, public supply, domestic, and agricultural uses. Potentiometric-surface maps were constructed from water-level measurements made in 60 wells completed in the Nacatoch Sand and 50 wells completed in the Tokio Formation during...

This report presents raw data on selenium concentrations in samples of water, sediment, detritus, and selected food-chain matrices collected from selected agricultural drains in the southern portion of the Salton Sea during October 2006 and January 2007. Total selenium and selenium species were determined in water samples, whereas total selenium was determined in sediment, detritus...

We evaluated exposure of aquatic biota to lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and cadmium (Cd) in streams draining a Pb-mining district in southeast Missouri. Samples of plant biomass (detritus, periphyton, and filamentous algae), invertebrates (snails, crayfish, and riffle benthos), and two taxa of fish were collected from seven sites closest to mining areas (mining sites), four sites further...

This chapter discusses contaminant uptake by a passive sampling device (PSD) that consists of a central sorption phase, surrounded by a membrane. A variety of models has been used over the past few years to better understand the kinetics of contaminant transfer to passive samplers. These models are essential for understanding how the amounts of absorbed contaminants relate to ambient

Local water managers usually rely on information produced at the State and regional scale to make water-resource management decisions. Current assessments of hydrologic and water-quality conditions in Polk County, Florida, commonly end at the boundaries of two water management districts (South Florida Water Management District and the Southwest Florida Water Management District), which...

Flood-inundation maps were created for selected streamgage sites in the North Carolina Tar River basin. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data with a vertical accuracy of about 20 centimeters, provided by the Floodplain Mapping Information System of the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, were processed to produce topographic data for the inundation maps. Bare-earth mass point...

High-resolution sea-floor mapping techniques, including sidecan-sonar, seismic-reflection, swath bathymetric systems, and bottom sampling, were used to map the geologic framework offshore of the northern South Carolina coast in order to provide a better understanding of the physical processes controlling coastal erosion and shoreline change. Four general sea floor environments were...

Analysts and managers of surface-water resources might have interest in selected statistics of daily mean streamflow for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow-gaging stations in Texas. The selected statistics are the annual mean, maximum, minimum, and L-scale of daily meanstreamflow. Annual L-scale of streamflow is a robust measure of the variability of the daily mean streamflow for a...

Analysts and managers of surface-water resources might have interest in the zero-flow potential for U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow-gaging stations in Texas. The USGS, in cooperation with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, initiated a data and reporting process to generate summaries of percentages of zero daily mean streamflow for 712 USGS streamflow-gaging stations...