Michelle Sneed
Michelle Sneed is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. She spent 25 years leading land subsidence research in the California Water Science Center and now serves as the Technical Support Coordinator for Groundwater Science in the Office of Quality Assurance.
Michelle received her BS and MS degrees in geology from California State University, Sacramento, where she subsequently taught geology classes for 10 years. While at the California Water Science Center, she published many studies of land subsidence related to fluid-pressure changes in areas throughout California and other areas in the Western U.S., which often had a focus on subsidence impacts to water-conveyance infrastructure. She is a member of the UNESCO Land Subsidence International Initiative, the recognized leader in promoting global land subsidence studies. At the Office of Quality Assurance, she serves as a technical-knowledge and point-of-contact resource to USGS scientists for all aspects of groundwater science. Michelle helps maintain and foster the exceptional quality of data and science for which the USGS is known and respected by helping scientists understand and comply with USGS and DOI policies, processes, and procedures, and by identifying and communicating technical advancements and risks.
Science and Products
Subsidence from Aquifer-Storage and Recovery in the East Bay Plain
Piezometers and Groundwater Levels
Decomposition of Organic Soils in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Aquifer Compaction due to Groundwater Pumping
Land Subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley
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Subsidence from Aquifer-Storage and Recovery in the East Bay Plain
The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) has proposed to store and recover as much as 10 million gallons of water per day (MGD) at an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) site, the Bayside Groundwater Project. Water will be stored in a 100-ft sequence of coarse-grained sediment (the "Deep Aquifer") underlying the East Bay Plain and the adjacent Niles Cone ground-water basin.Piezometers and Groundwater Levels
Measurements of elevations, aquifer-system compaction, and water levels are used to improve our understanding of the processes responsible for land-surface elevation changes. Elevation or elevation-change measurements are fundamental to monitoring land subsidence.Decomposition of Organic Soils in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California was once a great tidal freshwater marsh. It is blanketed by peat and peaty alluvium deposited where streams originating in the Sierra Nevada, Coast Ranges, and South Cascade Range enter San Francisco Bay. In the late 1800s, levees were built along the stream channels, and the land thus protected from flooding was drained, cleared, and planted (...Aquifer Compaction due to Groundwater Pumping
Although land subsidence caused by groundwater pumping has caused many negative effects on human civil works for centuries, especially in the highly developed urban or industrialized areas of Europe, the relation between subsidence and groundwater pumpage was not understood or recognized for a long time. Recognition began in 1928 when pioneer researcher O.E. Meinzer of the U.S. Geological Survey...Land Subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the nation. Beginning around the 1920's, farmers relied upon groundwater for water supply. Over time, overpumping caused groundwater-level declines and associated aquifer-system compaction and land subsidence that resulted in permanent aquifer-system storage loss. - Data
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