Laura M Bexfield
Science and Products
Metals and Other Trace Elements
Metals, metalloids, and radionuclides all are trace elements that occur naturally in the Earth's crust. In small quantities many trace elements are essential for health in all living organisms, but some trace elements can be toxic or cause cancer, and some can bioaccumulate. The USGS investigates where and how trace elements make their way into our Nation's surface water and groundwater.
Drinking Water Taste and Odor
Some water is just unpleasant to drink—it’s cloudy, or it smells or tastes bad. Some drinking water discolors teeth or skin, stains laundry or plumbing fixtures, or corrodes or clogs pipes. These effects are caused when some naturally occurring constituents occur at concentrations high enough to be a nuisance, and are particularly common where groundwater is used as a drinking water supply....
Public-Supply Well Pumping Regimes Influence Quality of Water Produced
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists studying the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination have identified ways in which the seasonal operation of public-supply wells can affect the quality of water that they produce. By incorporating historical water-quality data into models of fluid flow, USGS scientists were able to estimate the amount of contaminated groundwater reaching a...
Chemical Modeling of Consequences of Surface-Water Delivery Through Existing City of Albuquerque Infrastructure
The City of Albuquerque has historically obtained all of its municipal-supply water from production wells completed in sediment of the Santa Fe Group aquifer system. Like several communities in the Rio Grande Valley and various parts of the arid Southwest, Albuquerque has evaluated the use of surface water as a means to improve sustainability of its municipal water supply. The City currently...
Middle Rio Grande Basin Study
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Middle Rio Grande Basin Study was a 6-year effort (1995-2001) by the USGS and other agencies to improve the understanding of the hydrology, geology, and land-surface characteristics of the Middle Rio Grande Basin in order to provide the scientific information needed for water-resources management. The Santa Fe Group aquifer system is the main source of...
Third-party performance assessment data encompassing the time period of analysis of groundwater samples collected for hormones and pharmaceuticals by the National Water-Quality Assessment Project in 2013-15
This data set includes sample information and results for third-party performance assessment samples analyzed for hormones and pharmaceuticals during the same general time period as environmental samples collected by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project for a study of groundwater resources used for drinking-water supply across the United States, 2013 through 2015. Hormone a...
Environmental and Quality-Control Data Collected by the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Project for Hormones and Pharmaceuticals in Groundwater Used as a Source of Drinking Water Across the United States, 2013-15
This data set includes results for hormone and pharmaceutical compounds analyzed in environmental and quality-control samples collected by the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Project during 2013 through 2015 for a study of groundwater resources used for drinking-water supply across the United States. This data release includes: Table 1. Site information and ancillary data (including...
Laboratory Quality-Control Data Associated with Groundwater Samples Collected for Hormones and Pharmaceuticals by the National Water-Quality Assessment Project in 2013-15
This data set includes results for hormone and pharmaceutical compounds analyzed from 2012 through 2016 in laboratory quality-control samples that are associated with environmental samples collected by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project during 2013 through 2015 for a study of groundwater resources used for drinking-water supply across the United States. Hormone and pharmace...
Pesticides and pesticide degradates in groundwater used for public supply across the United States: Occurrence and human-health context
This is the first assessment of groundwater from public-supply wells across the United States to analyze for >100 pesticide degradates and to provide human-health context for degradates without benchmarks. Samples from 1204 wells in aquifers representing 70% of the volume pumped for drinking supply were analyzed for 109 pesticides (active...
Bexfield, Laura M.; Belitz, Kenneth; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Toccalino, Patricia; Nowell, Lisa H.
Quality of data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network for water years 2013–17
Water samples from 122 sites in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network were collected in 2013–17 to document ambient water-quality conditions in surface water of the United States and to determine status and trends of loads and concentrations for nutrients, contaminants, and sediment to estuaries and streams. Quality-control (QC...
Medalie, Laura; Bexfield, Laura M.
Quality of pesticide data for groundwater analyzed for the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, 2013–18
The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) submitted nearly 1,900 samples collected from groundwater sites across the United States in 2013–18 for analysis of 225 pesticide compounds (pesticides and pesticide degradates, hereafter referred to as “pesticides”) by USGS National Water Quality Laboratory...
Bexfield, Laura M.; Belitz, Kenneth; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Beaty, Delicia; Medalie, Laura; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Nowell, Lisa H.
Groundwater-quality and select quality-control data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January through December 2016, and previously unpublished data from 2013 to 2015
Environmental groundwater-quality data were collected from 648 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program and are included in this report. Most of the wells (514) were sampled from January through December 2016, and 60 of them were sampled in 2013 and 74 in 2014. The...
Arnold, Terri L.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Erickson, Melinda L.; Kingsbury, James A.; Degnan, James R.; Tesoriero, Anthony J.; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Belitz, Kenneth
Use of Set Blanks in Reporting Pesticide Results at the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory, 2001–15
Executive SummaryBackground.—Pesticide results from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) are used for water-quality assessments by many agencies and organizations. The USGS is committed to providing data of the highest possible quality to the consumers of its data. A cooperator’s inquiries about specific...
Medalie, Laura; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Toccalino, Patricia L.; Foreman, William T.; ReVello, Rhiannon C.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Riskin, Melissa L. Hormones and pharmaceuticals in groundwater used as a source of drinking water across the United States
This is the first large-scale, systematic assessment of hormone and pharmaceutical occurrence in groundwater used for drinking across the United States. Samples from 1091 sites in Principal Aquifers representing 60% of the volume pumped for drinking-water supply had final data for 21 hormones and 103 pharmaceuticals. At least one compound was...
Bexfield, Laura M.; Toccalino, Patricia; Belitz, Kenneth; Foreman, William T.; Furlong, Edward
Groundwater-quality and select quality-control data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January through December 2015, and previously unpublished data from 2013 to 2014
Groundwater-quality data were collected from 502 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program and are included in this report. Most of the wells (500) were sampled from January through December 2015, and 2 of them were sampled in 2013. The data were collected from five...
Arnold, Terri L.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Stackelberg, Paul E.; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Kingsbury, James A.; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Belitz, Kenneth
Data analysis considerations for pesticides determined by National Water Quality Laboratory schedule 2437
In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) made a new method available for the analysis of pesticides in filtered water samples: laboratory schedule 2437. Schedule 2437 is an improvement on previous analytical methods because it determines the concentrations of 225 fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and...
Shoda, Megan E.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Stone, Wesley W.; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Bexfield, Laura M.
Groundwater quality in the Rio Grande aquifer system, southwestern United States
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Rio Grande aquifer system...
Musgrove, MaryLynn; Bexfield, Laura M.
Groundwater-quality data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January through December 2014 and select quality-control data from May 2012 through December 2014
Groundwater-quality data were collected from 559 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program from January through December 2014. The data were collected from four types of well networks: principal aquifer study networks, which are used to assess the quality of...
Arnold, Terri L.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Stackelberg, Paul E.; Barlow, Jeannie R. B.; Desimone, Leslie A.; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Kingsbury, James A.; Ayotte, Joseph D.; Fleming, Brandon J.; Belitz, Kenneth
Groundwater quality data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, May 2012 through December 2013
Groundwater-quality data were collected from 748 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program from May 2012 through December 2013. The data were collected from four types of well networks: principal aquifer study networks, which assess the quality of groundwater used...
Arnold, Terri L.; Desimone, Leslie A.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Barlow, Jeannie R. B.; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Kingsbury, James A.; Belitz, Kenneth Global patterns and environmental controls of perchlorate and nitrate co-occurrence in arid and semi-arid environments
Natural perchlorate (ClO4−) is of increasing interest due to its wide-spread occurrence on Earth and Mars, yet little information exists on the relative abundance of ClO4− compared to other major anions, its stability, or long-term variations in production that may impact the observed distributions. Our objectives were to evaluate the occurrence...
Jackson, W Andrew; Böhlke, John K.; Andraski, Brian J.; Fahlquist, Lynne S.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Eckardt, Frank D.; Gates, John B.; Davila, Alfonso F.; McKay, Christopher P.; Rao, Balaji; Sevanthi, Ritesh; Rajagopalan, Srinath; Estrada, Nubia; Sturchio, Neil C.; Hatzinger, Paul B.; Anderson, Todd A.; Orris, Greta J.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Stonestrom, David A.; Latorre, Claudio; Li, Yanhe; Harvey, Gregory J.
Pesticides and their degradation products common in groundwater but at low concentrations unlikely to be human-health concern
Thousands of pesticides are used on crops and landscaping, are they in our groundwater? According to a new USGS study, the answer is a qualified yes—some pesticides and the chemical compounds they degrade to are common in groundwater used for public drinking-water supply, but mostly at concentrations well below levels of concern for...
Pharmaceuticals and hormones few and at low concentrations in groundwater, USGS scientists find
The topic of pharmaceuticals and hormones in drinking water gets people’s attention, but if that drinking water is pumped from a well, those chemicals are less likely to be present, according to a new national study by the U.S. Geological Survey and published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.