Laura DeCicco is a Civil Engineer with the Upper Midwest Water Science Center.
Professional Experience
2019 - present, Upper Midwest Water Science Center (UMid WSC)
2018 - 2019, Integrated Information Dissemination Division (IIDD), Data Science Branch
2014 - 2018, Office of Water Information (OWI)
2010 - 2014, Center for Integrated Data Analytics (CIDA)
Education and Certifications
Professional Engineer, State of Wisconsin, 2011
(Formally Laura Kranendonk)
Post Doc, Oak Ridge National Lab, 2007-2009
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering - University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2006
M.S. Biomedical Engineering - University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2001
B.S. Mechanical Engineering - University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1999
Science and Products
Evaluating chloride trends due to road-salt use and its impacts on water quality and aquatic organisms
Chloride, a key component of road salt, is soluble, highly mobile in water, and, at high concentrations, can be toxic to aquatic vegetation and wildlife. USGS scientists have been analyzing temporal, seasonal, and environmental trends in chloride concentrations across the U.S. to determine the effects that road salt may be having on water quality and aquatic organisms.
Select optical signals from water samples collected on the Menomonee River, Underwood Creek, and Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility from 2017-2019, and time-series optical sensor and one-hour mean streamflow data from the Menomonee River 2017-2018
5-day composite river water samples were collected from two sites: Menomonee River (U.S. Geological Survey station number 04087142) and Underwood Creek (U.S. Geological Survey station number 04087088) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 5-day composite wastewater (raw sewage) influent samples were also collected from the Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility (U.S. Geological Survey station number 430125087
Optical signals of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water of Great Lake tributaries from 2011 to 2016
Data are from water samples collected from tributaries of the Great Lakes at three different drainage basin scales, including 1). watershed scale: 8 tributaries of the Great Lakes, 2). subwatershed scale: 5 locations from the greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, and 3). small scale: 213 storm sewers and open channel locations in three subwatersheds within the Great Lakes Basin including the Middle B
Chemistry of waters collected in the Wolf Creek and Buffalo Creek watersheds in West Virginia in 2016
Water chemistry data for samples collected in 2016 in the Wolf Creek and Buffalo Creek watersheds in West Virginia. The dataset includes stream characteristics including flow and location information for sampling sites.
Water-quality and streamflow datasets used in the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) models to determine trends in the Nations rivers and streams, 1972-2012
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a study of more than 50 major river basins across the Nation as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project of the National Water-Quality Program. One of the major goals of the NAWQA project is to determine how water-quality conditions change over time. To support that goal, long-term consistent and comparable monitoring has been c
Filter Total Items: 16
Pesticide prioritization by potential biological effects in tributaries of the Laurentian Great Lakes
Watersheds of the Great Lakes Basin (USA/Canada) are highly modified and impacted by human activities including pesticide use. Despite labeling restrictions intended to minimize risks to nontarget organisms, concerns remain that environmental exposures to pesticides may be occurring at levels negatively impacting nontarget organisms. We used a combination of organismal-level toxicity estimates (in
Prioritizing pesticides of potential concern and identifying potential mixture effects in Great Lakes tributaries using passive samplers
To help meet the objectives of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative with regard to increasing knowledge about toxic substances, 223 pesticides and pesticide transformation products were monitored in 15 Great Lakes tributaries using polar organic chemical integrative samplers. A screening-level assessment of their potential for biological effects was conducted by computing toxicity quotients (TQs
Prioritizing pharmaceutical contaminants in Great Lakes tributaries using risk-based screening techniques
In a study of 44 diverse sampling sites across 16 Great Lakes tributaries, 110 pharmaceuticals were detected of 257 monitored. The present study evaluated the ecological relevance of detected chemicals and identified heavily impacted areas to help inform resource managers and guide future investigations. Ten pharmaceuticals (caffeine, nicotine, albuterol, sulfamethoxazole, venlafaxine, acetaminoph
Optical properties of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water at three watershed scales
Relations between spectral absorbance and fluorescence properties of water and human-associated and fecal indicator bacteria were developed for facilitating field sensor applications to estimate wastewater contamination in waterways. Leaking wastewater conveyance infrastructure commonly contaminates receiving waters. Methods to quantify such contamination can be time consuming, expensive, and ofte
Identifying chemicals and mixtures of potential biological concern detected in passive samplers from Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput data and biological pathways
Waterborne contaminants were monitored in 69 tributaries of the Laurentian Great Lakes in 2010 and 2014 using semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) and polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS). A risk-based screening approach was used to prioritize chemicals and chemical mixtures, identify sites at greatest risk for biological impacts, and identify potential hazards to monitor at those
Evaluating the potential role of bioactive chemicals on the distribution of invasive Asian carp upstream and downstream from river mile 278 in the Illinois waterway
Two non-native carp species have invaded the Illinois Waterway and are a threat to Great Lakes ecosystems. Poor water quality in the upper Illinois Waterway, may be a factor contributing to the stalling of the carp population front near river mile 278. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected 4 sets of water samples from two sites upstream and 4 sites downstream from river mile 278, and one t
Prioritizing chemicals of ecological concern in Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput screening data and adverse outcome pathways
Chemical monitoring data were collected in surface waters from 57 Great Lakes tributaries from 2010-13 to identify chemicals of potential biological relevance and sites at which these chemicals occur. Traditional water-quality benchmarks for aquatic life based on in vivo toxicity data were available for 34 of 67 evaluated chemicals. To expand evaluation of potential biological effects, measured ch
Mixed-chemical exposure and predicted effects potential in wadeable southeastern USA streams
Complex chemical mixtures have been widely reported in larger streams but relatively little work has been done to characterize them and assess their potential effects in headwaterstreams. In 2014, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) sampled 54 Piedmont streams over ten weeks and measured 475 unique organic compounds using five analytical methods. Maximum and median exposure conditions were
Reconnaissance of mixed organic and inorganic chemicals in private and public supply tapwaters at selected residential and workplace sites in the United States
Safe drinking water at the point-of-use (tapwater, TW) is a United States public health priority. Multiple lines of evidence were used to evaluate potential human health concerns of 482 organics and 19 inorganics in TW from 13 (7 public supply, 6 private well self-supply) home and 12 (public supply) workplace locations in 11 states. Only uranium (61.9 μg L–1, private well) exceeded a National Prim
By
Ecosystems, Water Resources, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, California Water Science Center, Central Midwest Water Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Kansas Water Science Center, Michigan-Ohio Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, National Water Quality Laboratory
An “EAR” on environmental surveillance and monitoring: A case study on the use of Exposure–Activity Ratios (EARs) to prioritize sites, chemicals, and bioactivities of concern in Great Lakes waters
Current environmental monitoring approaches focus primarily on chemical occurrence. However, based on concentration alone, it can be difficult to identify which compounds may be of toxicological concern and should be prioritized for further monitoring, in-depth testing, or management. This can be problematic because toxicological characterization is lacking for many emerging contaminants. New sour
Water-quality trends in the nation’s rivers and streams, 1972–2012—Data preparation, statistical methods, and trend results
Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering rivers and streams. To understand the return on these investments and to effectively manage and protect the Nation’s water resources in the future, we need to know how and why water quality has been changing over time. As part of the National Water-Qual
Water quality data for national-scale aquatic research: The Water Quality Portal
Aquatic systems are critical to food, security, and society. But, water data are collected by hundreds of research groups and organizations, many of which use nonstandard or inconsistent data descriptions and dissemination, and disparities across different types of water observation systems represent a major challenge for freshwater research. To address this issue, the Water Quality Portal (WQP) w
dataRetrieval
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed an R package called dataRetrieval to help simplify the process of discovering and retrieving water quality sample data, streamflow, groundwater, and other data available from Federal hydrologic web services such as National Water Information Systems (NWIS), the EPA Water Quality Exchange (WQX) System, and the National Hydrologic Dataset via the Hydro-Ne
HASP
The Hydrologic Analysis Package (HASP) can retrieve groundwater level and groundwater quality data, aggregate these data, plot them, and generate basic statistics. One of the benefits of HASP is its ability to aggregate two time-series of data into one record and generate statistics and graphics on
hat record. By merging two data sets together, users can view and manipulate a much longer record o
wqReport
This is an R-package designed to create water-quality reports for either U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wildlife refuge boundaries, or user-specified Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) boundaries (8 or 10 digit HUC services are available). Functions are included to take the user's geographical request, and find the sites that measure water-quality parameters, and retrieve that data. A workflow walks
ToxMixtures: A package to explore toxicity due to chemical mixtures
The ToxMixtures R-package includes a set of functions to analyze, visualize, and organize measured chemical concentration data as it relates to chemical mixtures. ToxMixtures combines outputs from the R-package toxEval with
open access sources on molecular biology to provide information on potential biological effects of chemicals detected in environmental matrices. To use ToxMixtures, the user wi
toxEval
Evaluation of measured concentration data using the ToxCast high-throughput screening database or a user-defined set of concentration benchmarks.
Science and Products
- Science
Evaluating chloride trends due to road-salt use and its impacts on water quality and aquatic organisms
Chloride, a key component of road salt, is soluble, highly mobile in water, and, at high concentrations, can be toxic to aquatic vegetation and wildlife. USGS scientists have been analyzing temporal, seasonal, and environmental trends in chloride concentrations across the U.S. to determine the effects that road salt may be having on water quality and aquatic organisms. - Data
Select optical signals from water samples collected on the Menomonee River, Underwood Creek, and Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility from 2017-2019, and time-series optical sensor and one-hour mean streamflow data from the Menomonee River 2017-2018
5-day composite river water samples were collected from two sites: Menomonee River (U.S. Geological Survey station number 04087142) and Underwood Creek (U.S. Geological Survey station number 04087088) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 5-day composite wastewater (raw sewage) influent samples were also collected from the Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility (U.S. Geological Survey station number 430125087Optical signals of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water of Great Lake tributaries from 2011 to 2016
Data are from water samples collected from tributaries of the Great Lakes at three different drainage basin scales, including 1). watershed scale: 8 tributaries of the Great Lakes, 2). subwatershed scale: 5 locations from the greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, and 3). small scale: 213 storm sewers and open channel locations in three subwatersheds within the Great Lakes Basin including the Middle BChemistry of waters collected in the Wolf Creek and Buffalo Creek watersheds in West Virginia in 2016
Water chemistry data for samples collected in 2016 in the Wolf Creek and Buffalo Creek watersheds in West Virginia. The dataset includes stream characteristics including flow and location information for sampling sites.Water-quality and streamflow datasets used in the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) models to determine trends in the Nations rivers and streams, 1972-2012
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a study of more than 50 major river basins across the Nation as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project of the National Water-Quality Program. One of the major goals of the NAWQA project is to determine how water-quality conditions change over time. To support that goal, long-term consistent and comparable monitoring has been c - Publications
Filter Total Items: 16
Pesticide prioritization by potential biological effects in tributaries of the Laurentian Great Lakes
Watersheds of the Great Lakes Basin (USA/Canada) are highly modified and impacted by human activities including pesticide use. Despite labeling restrictions intended to minimize risks to nontarget organisms, concerns remain that environmental exposures to pesticides may be occurring at levels negatively impacting nontarget organisms. We used a combination of organismal-level toxicity estimates (inPrioritizing pesticides of potential concern and identifying potential mixture effects in Great Lakes tributaries using passive samplers
To help meet the objectives of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative with regard to increasing knowledge about toxic substances, 223 pesticides and pesticide transformation products were monitored in 15 Great Lakes tributaries using polar organic chemical integrative samplers. A screening-level assessment of their potential for biological effects was conducted by computing toxicity quotients (TQsPrioritizing pharmaceutical contaminants in Great Lakes tributaries using risk-based screening techniques
In a study of 44 diverse sampling sites across 16 Great Lakes tributaries, 110 pharmaceuticals were detected of 257 monitored. The present study evaluated the ecological relevance of detected chemicals and identified heavily impacted areas to help inform resource managers and guide future investigations. Ten pharmaceuticals (caffeine, nicotine, albuterol, sulfamethoxazole, venlafaxine, acetaminophOptical properties of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water at three watershed scales
Relations between spectral absorbance and fluorescence properties of water and human-associated and fecal indicator bacteria were developed for facilitating field sensor applications to estimate wastewater contamination in waterways. Leaking wastewater conveyance infrastructure commonly contaminates receiving waters. Methods to quantify such contamination can be time consuming, expensive, and ofteIdentifying chemicals and mixtures of potential biological concern detected in passive samplers from Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput data and biological pathways
Waterborne contaminants were monitored in 69 tributaries of the Laurentian Great Lakes in 2010 and 2014 using semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) and polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS). A risk-based screening approach was used to prioritize chemicals and chemical mixtures, identify sites at greatest risk for biological impacts, and identify potential hazards to monitor at thoseEvaluating the potential role of bioactive chemicals on the distribution of invasive Asian carp upstream and downstream from river mile 278 in the Illinois waterway
Two non-native carp species have invaded the Illinois Waterway and are a threat to Great Lakes ecosystems. Poor water quality in the upper Illinois Waterway, may be a factor contributing to the stalling of the carp population front near river mile 278. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected 4 sets of water samples from two sites upstream and 4 sites downstream from river mile 278, and one tPrioritizing chemicals of ecological concern in Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput screening data and adverse outcome pathways
Chemical monitoring data were collected in surface waters from 57 Great Lakes tributaries from 2010-13 to identify chemicals of potential biological relevance and sites at which these chemicals occur. Traditional water-quality benchmarks for aquatic life based on in vivo toxicity data were available for 34 of 67 evaluated chemicals. To expand evaluation of potential biological effects, measured chMixed-chemical exposure and predicted effects potential in wadeable southeastern USA streams
Complex chemical mixtures have been widely reported in larger streams but relatively little work has been done to characterize them and assess their potential effects in headwaterstreams. In 2014, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) sampled 54 Piedmont streams over ten weeks and measured 475 unique organic compounds using five analytical methods. Maximum and median exposure conditions wereReconnaissance of mixed organic and inorganic chemicals in private and public supply tapwaters at selected residential and workplace sites in the United States
Safe drinking water at the point-of-use (tapwater, TW) is a United States public health priority. Multiple lines of evidence were used to evaluate potential human health concerns of 482 organics and 19 inorganics in TW from 13 (7 public supply, 6 private well self-supply) home and 12 (public supply) workplace locations in 11 states. Only uranium (61.9 μg L–1, private well) exceeded a National Prim
ByEcosystems, Water Resources, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, California Water Science Center, Central Midwest Water Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Kansas Water Science Center, Michigan-Ohio Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, National Water Quality LaboratoryAn “EAR” on environmental surveillance and monitoring: A case study on the use of Exposure–Activity Ratios (EARs) to prioritize sites, chemicals, and bioactivities of concern in Great Lakes waters
Current environmental monitoring approaches focus primarily on chemical occurrence. However, based on concentration alone, it can be difficult to identify which compounds may be of toxicological concern and should be prioritized for further monitoring, in-depth testing, or management. This can be problematic because toxicological characterization is lacking for many emerging contaminants. New sourWater-quality trends in the nation’s rivers and streams, 1972–2012—Data preparation, statistical methods, and trend results
Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering rivers and streams. To understand the return on these investments and to effectively manage and protect the Nation’s water resources in the future, we need to know how and why water quality has been changing over time. As part of the National Water-QualWater quality data for national-scale aquatic research: The Water Quality Portal
Aquatic systems are critical to food, security, and society. But, water data are collected by hundreds of research groups and organizations, many of which use nonstandard or inconsistent data descriptions and dissemination, and disparities across different types of water observation systems represent a major challenge for freshwater research. To address this issue, the Water Quality Portal (WQP) w - Software
dataRetrieval
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed an R package called dataRetrieval to help simplify the process of discovering and retrieving water quality sample data, streamflow, groundwater, and other data available from Federal hydrologic web services such as National Water Information Systems (NWIS), the EPA Water Quality Exchange (WQX) System, and the National Hydrologic Dataset via the Hydro-NeHASP
The Hydrologic Analysis Package (HASP) can retrieve groundwater level and groundwater quality data, aggregate these data, plot them, and generate basic statistics. One of the benefits of HASP is its ability to aggregate two time-series of data into one record and generate statistics and graphics on hat record. By merging two data sets together, users can view and manipulate a much longer record owqReport
This is an R-package designed to create water-quality reports for either U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wildlife refuge boundaries, or user-specified Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) boundaries (8 or 10 digit HUC services are available). Functions are included to take the user's geographical request, and find the sites that measure water-quality parameters, and retrieve that data. A workflow walksToxMixtures: A package to explore toxicity due to chemical mixtures
The ToxMixtures R-package includes a set of functions to analyze, visualize, and organize measured chemical concentration data as it relates to chemical mixtures. ToxMixtures combines outputs from the R-package toxEval with open access sources on molecular biology to provide information on potential biological effects of chemicals detected in environmental matrices. To use ToxMixtures, the user witoxEval
Evaluation of measured concentration data using the ToxCast high-throughput screening database or a user-defined set of concentration benchmarks.