Terence Messinger
Biography
Terry Messinger has spent his career at the U.S. Geological Survey in Charleston, West Virginia, beginning in 1991. His recent work is related to streamflow quantity, timing, and distribution. He has previously worked in channel geomorphology, water quality, and fish and invertebrate community ecology.
Science and Products
Improving Time of Concentration Estimates for Small Rural Watersheds in the Appalachian Plateaus Physiographic Province, West Virginia
Many culverts and other drainage structures in rural West Virginia are located in small streams or valleys draining 100 acres or less. Design of these structures in West Virginia is generally done using discharge estimates made with widely used and well accepted methods. However, these methods require information including flow-segment length and channel geometry that are poorly characterized...
Rating stability, and frequency and magnitude of shifts, for streamgages in Virginia through water year 2013
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, has quantified several measures of rating stability and the frequency and magnitude of changes to ratings through time for 174 real-time continuous streamgages active in Virginia as of September 30, 2013. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were fitted...
Messinger, Terence; Burgholzer, Robert W.
Annual and average estimates of water-budget components based on hydrograph separation and PRISM precipitation for gaged basins in the Appalachian Plateaus Region, 1900-2011
As part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Groundwater Resources Program study of the Appalachian Plateaus aquifers, annual and average estimates of water-budget components based on hydrograph separation and precipitation data from parameter-elevation regressions on independent slopes model (PRISM) were determined at 849 continuous-record...
Nelms, David L.; Messinger, Terence; McCoy, Kurt J.
Water quality of groundwater and stream base flow in the Marcellus Shale Gas Field of the Monongahela River Basin, West Virginia, 2011-12
The Marcellus Shale gas field underlies portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Development of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology led to extensive development of gas from the Marcellus Shale beginning about 2007. The need to identify and monitor changes in water-quality...
Chambers, Douglas B.; Kozar, Mark D.; Messinger, Terence; Mulder, Michon L.; Pelak, Adam J.; White , Jeremy S.
Correlations of daily flows at streamgages in and near West Virginia, 1930-2011, and streamflow characteristics relevant to the use of index streamgages
Correlation of flows at pairs of streamgages were evaluated using a Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient to better identify gages that can be used as index gages to estimate daily flow at ungaged stream sites in West Virginia. Much of West Virginia (77 percent) is within areas where Spearman’s rho for daily streamflow between streamgages on...
Messinger, Terence; Paybins, Katherine S.
Estimation of traveltime and longitudinal dispersion in streams in West Virginia
Traveltime and dispersion data are important for understanding and responding to spills of contaminants in waterways. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, Office of Environmental Health Services, compiled and evaluated traveltime and longitudinal dispersion data representative of many West...
Wiley, Jeffrey B.; Messinger, Terence
Regional Curves for Bankfull Channel Characteristics in the Appalachian Plateaus, West Virginia
Streams in the Appalachian Plateaus Physiographic Province in West Virginia were classified as a single region on the basis of bankfull characteristics. Regression lines for annual peak flow and drainage area measured at streamgages in the study area at recurrence intervals between 1.2 and 1.7 years fell within the 99-percent confidence interval...
Messinger, Terence
Development and analysis of regional curves for streams in the non-urban valley and ridge physiographic province, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia
Regression relations for bankfull stream characteristics based on drainage area (often called 'regional curves') are used in natural stream channel design to verify field determinations of bankfull discharge and stream channel characteristics. Bankfull stream characteristics were assessed for stream reaches at 41 streamflow-gaging stations in the...
Keaton, Jefferson N.; Messinger, Terence; Doheny, Edward J. Regional Relations in Bankfull Channel Characteristics determined from flow measurements at selected stream-gaging stations in West Virginia, 1911-2002
Three bankfull channel characteristics?cross-sectional area, width, and depth?were significantly correlated with drainage area in regression equations developed for two regions in West Virginia. Channel characteristics were determined from analysis of flow measurements made at 74 U.S. Geological Survey stream-gaging stations at flows between 0.5...
Messinger, Terence; Wiley, Jeffrey B.
Comparison of storm response of streams in small, unmined and valley-filled watersheds, 1999-2001, Ballard fork, West Virginia
During storms when rainfall intensity exceeded about 1 inch per hour, peak unit runoff from the Unnamed Tributary (surface-mined and filled) Watershed exceeded peak unit runoff from the Spring Branch (unmined) Watershed in the Ballard Fork Watershed in southern West Virginia. During most storms, those with intensity less than about 1 inch per hour...
Messinger, Terence Relations between precipitation and daily and monthly mean flows in gaged, unmined and valley-filled watersheds, Ballard Fork, West Virginia, 1999-2001
Large-scale surface mining using valley fills has changed hydrologic storage and processes in the Ballard Fork Watershed in West Virginia. Total unit flow for the 2-year study period (November 15, 1999?November 14, 2001) on the Unnamed Tributary (extensively mined) (11,700 cubic feet per second per square mile) was almost twice that on Spring...
Messinger, Terence; Paybins, Katherine S. Reconnaissance for selected pathogens, and review of pertinent literature, for the New River Gorge National River, West Virginia, 2000
Messinger, Terence Benthic invertebrate communities and their responses to selected environmental factors in the Kanawha River basin, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina
The effects of selected environmental factors on the composition and structure of benthic invertebrate communities in the Kanawha River Basin of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina were investigated in 1997 and 1998. Environmental factors investigated include physiography, land-use pattern, streamwater chemistry, streambed- sediment...
Chambers, Douglas B.; Messinger, Terence