Elise Wright

The Issue: The Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessments (VELMA) model is a spatially explicit, eco-hydrological watershed model that was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The VELMA model can be used to examine a wide variety of environmental systems; however, an area where the model could be improved is in its accounting of the interaction of groundwater and...

The Issue: In Pierce County, Washington, much of the stormwater runoff is managed by underground injection control (UIC) structures, such as dry wells, infiltration trenches, and catch basins. Stormwater is directed into UIC structures to prevent poor-quality water from entering streams. This is good for stream health because stormwater is directed away from streams and into the ground, but there...

The Issue: San Juan County encompasses an archipelago within the Salish Sea between the southeastern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia and Skagit and Whatcom Counties on mainland western Washington. Although the year-round population is generally small (approximately 16,000 in 2010), there is an ever-growing influx of visitors to the scenic islands especially during the summer months. An...

The Issue: Groundwater discharge to streams and rivers in the Puget Sound basin is the primary source of water for sustaining summer low flows. A robust understanding of how anthropogenic and natural stressors affect summer low flows across the entire Puget Sound Regional Aquifer System is lacking, and USGS has tools and data—including current water-use data and subbasin-scale groundwater models...

Aquifers of the San Juan Islands, which are the principal source of fresh water, are commonly intruded by seawater at near-shoreline locations (less than one mile from the shore). Because the demand for ground water has escalated in recent years due to population growth and is expected to continue, the progression of seawater intrusion and areas most susceptible to future seawater intrusion must...