Unified Interior Regions
Region 6: Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas-Gulf
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Edwards Aquifer Groundwater Model Uncertainty Analysis
USGS Texas Water Science Center (TXWSC) is undertaking a 1.5-year study to assess parameter and predictive uncertainty in the Edwards Aquifer Authority MODFLOW Model using both linear and non-linear techniques. The Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) uses two models simulating the periods from 2001 to 2015 (verification model) and the drought of record of 1947-1958 (drought of record model).
Nutrient and Sediment Monitoring in Inflows to Texas Bays and Estuaries
The USGS Texas Water Science Center is evaluating the variability of nutrient and sediment concentrations and loads entering Texas bays and estuaries across a range of hydrologic conditions in Galveston Bay (inflow from the Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers), Matagordo Bay (inflow from the Colorado River), San Antonio Bay (inflow from the Guadalupe River), and Nueces Bay (inflow from Nueces River...
Cyanobacteria Methods
Texas Water Science Center (TXWSC) scientists are testing different methods of detecting and quantifying cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in Texas reservoirs. The results of these tests could be used to develop a cost-effective monitoring plan to evaluate the presence and concentration of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in Texas reservoirs.
City of Austin Water Quality Data Review and Analysis
The USGS and City of Austin have been working together on water-quality sampling and studies of surface-water and groundwater sites in the Austin area for many years. A large variety of water-quality samples have been collected over a range of hydrologic conditions and submitted for numerous laboratory analyses. Both agencies are interested in exploring existing data for potential insight on...
Coastal Lowlands Regional Groundwater Availability Study
USGS is undertaking a 5-year study to assess groundwater availability for the aquifers proximal to the Gulf of Mexico from the Texas-Mexico border through the panhandle of Florida, known as the Coastal Lowlands Aquifer System (CLAS). This study is one of several within the Regional Groundwater Availability Studies of the ...
Catahoula Water Chemistry Network
In 2009, large volume groundwater users began the exploration of the Catahoula Sandstone as an alternate water source in Montgomery County. Little to no information exists on the water quality of the Catahoula Sandstone in Montgomery County. To assess the viability of the Catahoula Sandstone as a potential source of groundwater, the USGS Texas Water Science Center is collecting water-quality...
Carrizo Aquifer Water Quality
The USGS Texas Water Science Center, in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System, has been collecting data since 2004 to characterize the quality of and ascertain changes in groundwater at and near the water system’s Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) site, where the water system has been injecting water from the Edwards aquifer into the Carrizo aquifer for storage. Findings are...
Assimilative Capacity of Lake Livingston
The nutrient and sediment data collected by this study provides insight into assimilative capacity of reservoirs and impacts to inflows for coastal Texas.
Bandera Flood Early Warning Tool
Risk of future flooding events in the Bandera County area highlights a critical need for a flood warning system. As part of the flood warning system, a tool set is needed to enhance the communication of flood risk and provide emergency managers additional information necessary to better mitigate the impacts of flooding. The USGS Texas Water Science Center is helping build this tool set...
Arroyo Colorado Water Quality Monitoring
As a result of being able to continuously monitor the water column in multiple depths, dynamic changes in water chemistry (such as those that result from barge traffic and large storms) now can be identified, thereby helping water resource managers better understand changes in water quality in the Arroyo Colorado.
Bird Banding Laboratory
The Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) is an integrated scientific program established in 1920 supporting the collection, archiving, management and dissemination of information from banded and marked birds in North America. This information is used to monitor the status and trends of resident and migratory bird populations. Because birds are good indicators of the health of the environment, the...
Hurricane Harvey - Forecast and Documentation of Coastal Change
Hurricane Harvey coastal change forecast and pre- and post-storm photos documenting coastal change.
Forecast first: An argument for groundwater modeling in reverse
Numerical groundwater models are important compo-nents of groundwater analyses that are used for makingcritical decisions related to the management of ground-water resources. In this support role, models are oftenconstructed to serve a specific purpose that is to provideinsights, through simulation, related to a specific func-tion of a complex...
White, Jeremy T. The importance of parameterization when simulating the hydrologic response of vegetative land-cover change
Computer models of hydrologic systems are frequently used to investigate the hydrologic response of land-cover change. If the modeling results are used to inform resource-management decisions, then providing robust estimates of uncertainty in the simulated response is an important consideration. Here we examine the importance of parameterization,...
White, Jeremy T.; Stengel, Victoria G.; Rendon, Samuel H.; Banta, John
Hydrogeology and simulated groundwater flow and availability in the North Fork Red River aquifer, southwest Oklahoma, 1980–2013
On September 8, 1981, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board established regulatory limits on the maximum annual yield of groundwater (343,042 acre-feet per year) and equal-proportionate-share (EPS) pumping rate (1.0 acre-foot per acre per year) for the North Fork Red River aquifer. The maximum annual yield and EPS were based on a hydrologic...
Smith, S. Jerrod; Ellis, John H.; Wagner, Derrick L.; Peterson, Steven M.
Bathymetric surveys of the Neosho River, Spring River, and Elk River, northeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri, 2016–17
In February 2017, the Grand River Dam Authority filed to relicense the Pensacola Hydroelectric Project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The predominant feature of the Pensacola Hydroelectric Project is Pensacola Dam, which impounds Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees (locally called Grand Lake) in northeastern Oklahoma. Identification of...
Hunter, Shelby L.; Ashworth, Chad E.; Smith, S. Jerrod
Water-level altitudes 2017 and water-level changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper Aquifers and compaction 1973–2016 in the Chicot and Evangeline Aquifers, Houston-Galveston region, Texas
Most of the land-surface subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region, Texas, has occurred as a direct result of groundwater withdrawals for municipal supply, commercial and industrial use, and irrigation that depressured and dewatered the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, thereby causing compaction of the aquifer sediments, mostly in the fine-grained...
Kasmarek, Mark C.; Ramage, Jason K.
Geophysics- and geochemistry-based assessment of the geochemical characteristics and groundwater-flow system of the U.S. part of the Mesilla Basin/Conejos-Médanos aquifer system in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and El Paso County, Texas, 2010–12
One of the largest rechargeable groundwater systems by total available volume in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin (hereinafter referred to as the “Rio Grande”) region of the United States and Mexico, the Mesilla Basin/Conejos-Médanos aquifer system, supplies water for irrigation as well as for cities of El Paso, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and...
Teeple, Andrew P. Coal-tar-based pavement sealants—a potent source of PAHs
P avement sealants are applied to the asphalt pavement of many parking lots, driveways, and even playgrounds in North America (Figure 1), where, when first applied, they render the pavement glossy black and looking like new. Sealant products used commercially in the central, eastern, and northern United States typically are coal-tarbased, whereas...
Mahler, Barbara; Van Metre, Peter C. Similarities and differences in occurrence and temporal fluctuations in glyphosate and atrazine in small Midwestern streams (USA) during the 2013 growing season
Glyphosate and atrazine are the most intensively used herbicides in the United States. Although there is abundant spatial and temporal information on atrazine occurrence at regional scales, there are far fewer data for glyphosate, and studies that compare the two herbicides are rare. We investigated temporal patterns in glyphosate and atrazine...
Mahler, Barbara; Van Metre, Peter C.; Burley, Thomas E.; Loftin, Keith A.; Meyer, Michael T.; Nowell, Lisa H. New insights into nitrate dynamics in a karst groundwater system gained from in situ high-frequency optical sensor measurements
Understanding nitrate dynamics in groundwater systems as a function of climatic conditions, especially during contrasting patterns of drought and wet cycles, is limited by a lack of temporal and spatial data. Nitrate sensors have the capability for making accurate, high-frequency measurements of nitrate in situ, but have not yet been evaluated for...
Opsahl, Stephen P.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Slattery, Richard N.
Characterization of streamflow, suspended sediment, and nutrients entering Galveston Bay from the Trinity River, Texas, May 2014–December 2015
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board and the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, collected streamflow and water-quality data at USGS streamflow-gaging stations in the lower Trinity River watershed from May 2014 to December 2015 to characterize and improve the current understanding of the quantity and...
Lucena, Zulimar; Lee, Michael T.
Refining previous estimates of groundwater outflows from the Medina/Diversion Lake system, San Antonio area, Texas
IntroductionIn 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System, began a study to refine previously derived estimates of groundwater outflows from Medina and Diversion Lakes in south-central Texas near San Antonio. When full, Medina and Diversion Lakes (hereinafter referred to as the Medina/Diversion Lake...
Slattery, Richard N.; Asquith, William H.; Gordon, John D.
Bathymetry and capacity of Shawnee Reservoir, Oklahoma, 2016
Shawnee Reservoir (locally known as Shawnee Twin Lakes) is a man-made reservoir on South Deer Creek with a drainage area of 32.7 square miles in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. The reservoir consists of two lakes connected by an equilibrium channel. The southern lake (Shawnee City Lake Number 1) was impounded in 1935, and the northern lake (Shawnee...
Ashworth, Chad E.; Smith, S. Jerrod; Smith, Kevin A.
Planning Hurricane Harvey Response Efforts
Planning meeting at the USGS Gulf Coast Office.
Hurricane Harvey Flooding on Buffalo Bayou at Piney Point
USGS field crews made multiple record high flood measurements on Aug. 27, including downstream of Addicks and Barker dam. Flood measurements near Addicks and Barker dam are critical for making public safety decisions, as 1.2 million people live downstream.
USGS hydrologic technicians Eric Boeding and Robert Ellis measured the height and speed of
...
USGS Scientist Monitoring Streamflow & Flooding from Hurricane Harvey
In addition to staff that conduct field measurements of flooding conditions, others monitor information indoors. Here, USGS scientist Jeff East is monitoring streamflow and flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
Highest streamflow recorded near Anahuac, Texas.
USGS scientist Matthew Barnes makes the highest streamflow measurement ever recorded at Eagle Ferry Rd near Anahuac, Texas. Find more
information from this site information here: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=08042558
USGS Streamgage on West Side of Houston During Hurricane Harvey
Photo of a USGS streamgage on the west side of Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Find more information from this site information here:
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=08072680
Flood measurements in Houston during Hurricane Harvey
USGS scientist Mackenzie Mullins takes flood measurements at Berry Bayou in Houston, Texas.
USGS storm-tide sensor installed in preparation for Hurricane Harvey
USGS storm-tide sensor installed in preparation for Hurricane Harvey on St. Charles Bay near Interstate 35.
USGS scientist installs a storm-tide sensor
USGS scientist Charles Hartmann installs a storm-tide sensor in preparation for Hurricane Harvey in Carancahua Bay, Texas.
USGS scientists installs storm-tide sensor
USGS scientist Darwin Ockerman installs a storm-tide sensor at Packery Channel near Corpus Christi, Texas.
USGS storm-tide sensor installed in preparation for Hurricane Harvey
USGS storm-tide sensor installed in preparation for Hurricane Harvey near Matagorda, Texas.
USGS scientist flags a debris line on a telephone pole
USGS hydrologic technician Brandon Cooper flags a debris line on a telephone pole approximately 14.3 feet above the ground and located about 245 feet east of the bridge on Keith Road over Boggy Creek, September 15, 2017.
Developing Effective Drought Monitoring Tools for Farmers and Ranchers
This webinar was conducted on August 7, 2017 as part of the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center’s Climate Change Science and Management Webinar Series, held in partnership with the USFWS National Conservation Training Center.
Webinar Summary: The South Central U.S. is one of the main agricultural regions in North America: annual agricultural
“From the mountains to the coast, the southeastern U.S. contains ecosystems that harbor incredible biodiversity. Many of those ecosystems are already highly at risk from urbanization and other human land-use change. Identifying the ecosystems at risk from climate change will help inform conservation and management to ensure we don’t lose that biodiversity.” (Jennifer Constanza, report author)
A new report about how groundwater quality and quantity has changed in and around Gaines, Terry and Yoakum counties, Texas is now available from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Outlook incorporates multiple hypoxia models for the second year
This week’s Earthview is of the Brazos River Flood...
Reporters: Do you want to interview USGS scientists as they measure flooding? Please contact Jennifer LaVista.
First-of-its-kind survey shows that algal toxins are found nationwide
Reporters: Do you want to interview USGS scientists as they measure flooding? Please contact Jennifer LaVista.
The East Austin, Texas quadrangle is the updated "feature map" on the US Topo and Historical Topographic Map Collection websites.
Flood Preparedness – There’s a New USGS Map (or App) for That
This week's EarthView is a scorcher!
Updated US Topo maps for Texas and Oklahoma available for download; add Census Bureau road data, wetlands layer and select trails
New research can help water managers along the Rio Grande make wise decisions about how to best use the flow of a river vital for drinking water, agriculture and aquatic habitat. These studies also show how conditions from the prolonged drought in the West have affected the Rio Grande watershed.
Contacts
Locations
South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Austin, TX Office
Phone: (512) 927-3500
Fax: (512) 927-3590
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Oklahoma City, OK Office
Phone: 405-810-4400
Fax: 405-843-7712
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Tulsa, OK Office
Phone: 918-254-6651
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Woodward, OK Office
Phone: 580-256-5031
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Lubbock, TX Office
Phone: (806) 993-0229
Fax: (806) 993-0235
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Conroe, TX Office
Phone: (936) 271-5300
Fax: (936) 271-5399
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Wichita Falls, TX Office
Phone: (940) 397-4453
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Fort Worth, TX Office
Phone: (817) 263-9545
Fax: (682) 316-5022
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – El Paso, TX Office
Phone: (915) 534-6308
Fax: (915) 534-6299
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – San Angelo, TX Office
Phone: (325) 944-4600
Fax: (325) 942-0495
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – Corpus Christi, TX Office
Phone: (361) 825-2073
Fax: (361) 825-2025
Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center – San Antonio, TX Office
Phone: (210) 691-9200
Fax: (210) 691-9270