Unified Interior Regions
Sprague River Basin, Oregon
Region 9: Columbia-Pacific Northwest
Regions L2 Landing Page Tabs
Nitrate in GW, Lower Umatilla Basin, OR
Stretching from Pendleton, Oreg., to the Columbia River, the Lower Umatilla Basin covers 550 square miles. Concentrations of nitrate in the basin's ground water frequently exceed national drinking-water standards. The basin's complex ground-water system is exposed to five human-related sources of nitrate: septic tanks, feedlots, explosives, fertilizer, and land applications of food waste....
Fort Lewis
Fort Lewis is a 135-square-mile U.S. Army post in Pierce County, Washington, located just south of Tacoma. The Environmental and Natural Resources Division of Fort Lewis wishes to evaluate the effectiveness of the current and potential remediation activities at the Logistics Center, a regional maintenance facility at Fort Lewis where pump-and-treat systems are being used to remediate...
Elwha River
The formerly free-flowing Elwha River was famous for the diversity and size of its salmon runs. After the construction of the Elwha Dam (1912) and the Glines Canyon Dam (1927), fish lost access to more than 70 miles of mainstem river and tributary habitat. As a result, all 10 runs of native Elwha salmon and sea-going trout declined sharply. Restoration of the Elwha River ecosystem will be...
Nooksack River Ground-Water Bacteria
The lower Nooksack River Basin is located in Whatcom County, in the northwestern part of Washington. Within areas of the basin, the ground-water aquifer is shallow. Knowledge of how the surface water and the aquifer interact, and how this interaction affects the transport of bacteria and nitrates from agricultural fields to the ground-water system, is important to residents of the basin. This...
Multispectral imaging, Puyallup River
In the past, levees have been built along the river banks of the Puyallup River to prevent floodwater from damaging roads, buildings, farms, and other areas in the floodplain. Because levees can worsen flooding by creating backwater effects or reducing floodplain storage, Pierce County is planning to remove current levees and build new ones further away from the river channels.
To help...
PNW Tribal Water Resources Assessment
Native American Tribes in western Washington need comprehensive water data in order to protect, restore, and manage their water resources. To understand the factors affecting water quality and quantity on a regional scale, the data must be collected and managed through a systematic, coordinated approach.
To help the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) to design a coordinated...
Colville River Basin
The Colville River Basin is a 1,007-square-mile area located in Stevens County in northeastern Washington. Following the guidelines of Washington's Watershed Management Act of 1998, water-resource planning in the basin is being conducted within a Water Resources Inventory Area (WRIA).
Local citizens representing a wide range of water resource interest groups, together with local, state...
Water Resources of the Tulalip Indian Reservation
Future increases in population and development of the Tulalip Indian Reservation and neighboring areas would lead to increased pumping of ground water both on and off the Reservation. Increased pumpage in coastal and inland wells may decrease baseflows of streams and could affect fish-rearing operations in the Tulalip Creek watershed.
Puyallup Streamflow Trends
Covering about 28 square miles along the lower reaches of the Puyallup River in Pierce County, the Puyallup Indian Reservation is located in the lowest part of the basin. For this reason, all water-related activities in the basin affect the Puyallup Tribe of Indians' water resources and fish.
Because of their important links to the Puyallup River, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians want to...
Satus Creek
After irrigating croplands, water returned to creeks and rivers in the Yakima River Basin can contribute compounds and materials that affect the quality of habitat. On lands of the Yakama Nation, Satus Creek receives water from the North Drain that brings with it sediment, nutrients, bacteria, and pesticides, degrading the aquatic habitat and posing a barrier for endangered fish in the creek...
Urban Pesticide
Salmon and other aquatic life in the Puget Sound Basin need a healthy habitat to survive and to recover from historical declines, both in urban and agricultural settings. Yet, USGS studies in 1997 and 1998 found that more pesticides were found in urban streams than in agricultural streams, and that 9 out of 10 samples from urban streams had concentrations of insecticides exceeding levels...
Puget Parks
Snow and ice are major sources of water for plants and animals in the parks and forests of the Puget Sound Basin, including Olympic, North Cascades, and Mt. Rainier National Parks, and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Olympic National Forests. In the North Cascades National Park alone, there are more than 300 small glaciers that feed 245 mountain lakes and a myriad of streams, wetlands, and aquifers....
Crater Lake Image Shows Potential of Sentinel-2A
This image from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A satellite offers a breathtaking view of Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. It offers something equally important to park managers, scientists, and anyone else interested in land cover change—a view that is highly similar and complementary to Landsat acquisitions.
Mount St. Helens earthquake record during times of magma recharge.
The top plot is the number of located earthquakes per week from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network's catalog. The bottom plot shows the earthquake depths with time. Earthquakes are plotted as circles with the size of the circle corresponding to the magnitude of the earthquake (see legend). Both plots show the time period from 1987 to September 2004, and 2008 to May 4
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Earthquakes at Mount St. Helens from Mar. 14, 2016 - May 4, 2017
Map view plot of earthquakes located by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network from March 14, 2016 through May 4, 2016. Only high-quality locations are shown (8 or more observations with a 130 degree gap or less between observing stations).
DataGrapher: Quick Overview
The Data Grapher is a set of online tools that allow users to create customized graphs and tables of a whole variety of time-series data that are served up by the U.S. Geological Survey. When you visit the USGS Data Grapher site for the Oregon Water Science Center, this is the first page you will see. In order to use the USGS Data Grapher, you need to become familiar with
DataGrapher: Setting Up Your First Graph
The most basic function possible with the USGS Data Grapher is the one site, one parameter plot. Starting with the Time Series, One Site feature, you can select any of the sites that have been loaded into the Data Grapher system; for the Oregon Data Grapher, data from nearly 300 monitoring sites from Oregon and southwest Washington have been loaded. The available water-
DataGrapher: Adjusting A Graph
Once you have generated your graph, you have a variety of options of where to go next. First, you can download the data that you used to create the graph by selecting here. This allows you to import the data directly into a spreadsheet or database package where you can do your own custom manipulation. Another option is to download the actual graphic as shown on the screen
DataGrapher: Walk-Through Guide
The Data Grapher is a set of online tools that allow users to create customized graphs and tables of a whole variety of time-series data that are served up by the U.S. Geological Survey. Now, if you've never been here before, it probably would be helpful to check out the Help system. Under the Help menu, there are a number of tutorials and example graphs. Under Example
DataGrapher: Introduction and Navigation Menu
The USGS Data Grapher is a set of internet-based tools that allows users to create customized graphs and tables of continuous monitoring data, including water-quality, meteorological, and streamflow data. Each tool or feature performs a particular task...
USGS-CVO crew digs out Mount St. Helens' Sep. Lobe monitoring station.
During the first few days of Mount St. Helen's earthquake swarm in March 2016, the September Lobe monitoring station (located on the 1980-86 dome) was buried in deep snow and not transmitting data. USGS-Cascades Volcano Observatory Technicians Kelly Swinford and Amberlee Darold dug out the station on March 30, restoring data flow and improving our ability to monitor the
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CORVALLIS, Ore. — The U.S. Geological Survey has named Carol Schuler director of its Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center.
TACOMA, Wash. — Increasing amounts of sediment in rivers draining from Mt. Rainier could greatly increase the flooding potential in the Puget Lowland, according to a report published by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Approximately 13 million metric tons of rare earth elements (REE) exist within known deposits in the United States, according to the first-ever nationwide estimate of these elements by the U.S. Geological Survey.
TACOMA, Wash. — Washington’s only “benchmark” glacier continues to lose mass as a result of changes in climate, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Tritium appears to be seeping deeper into the water of the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer.
The groundwater system in the northern portion of Idaho’s Ada County is receiving some recharge. Results of a U.S. Geological Survey study reveal that the aquifer system contains both very old and relatively new water.
Washington and Oregon residents should not be alarmed to witness a low-flying aircraft over parts of southern Washington and northern Oregon in late-June through July.
The U.S. Geological Survey has added a fourth well to its Idaho Real-Time Groundwater Level Network. The well, USGS 21, is located on the U.S. Department of Energy’s 890-square mile Idaho National Laboratory site in southeastern Idaho.
Heavy rains last weekend turned many Idaho rivers into raging torrents.
Groundwater levels of the Columbia Plateau have declined over the past 25 years in about 80 percent of the nearly 500 wells measured, according to a report published by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Vancouver, Wash. — On Sunday, May 18, 1980 at 8:32 a.m., the bulging north flank of Mount St. Helens slid away in a massive landslide -- the largest in recorded history. Seconds later, the uncorked volcano exploded and blasted rocks northward across forest ridges and valleys, destroying everything in its path within minutes.
Volcano Kids activity room, new volcano poster, and memory book highlight this year's event.
Vancouver, Wash. — How would you like to have your picture taken in the crater of Mount St. Helens? Visitors to the Cascades Volcano Observatory during its annual open house this Saturday will be able to do just that, courtesy of a “green-screen”, and take advantage of many other...
Contacts
Locations
Idaho Water Science Center
Phone: Phone: (208) 387-1300
Fax: (208) 387-1372
Washington Water Science Center
Phone: (253) 552-1600
Fax: (253) 552-1581
Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC)
Phone: (206) 526-6282
Fax: (206) 526-6654
Oregon Water Science Center
info-or@usgs.gov
Phone: (503) 251-3200
Fax: (503) 251-3470
USGS Volcano Science Center
Phone: 360-993-8900
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) Headquarters
fresc_outreach@usgs.gov
Phone: 541-750-1030
Fax: 541-750-1069
Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO)
vhpweb@usgs.gov
Phone: 360-993-8900
Fax: 360-993-8980
Columbia River Research Laboratory
Phone: (509) 538-2299
Fax: (509) 538-2843
Oregon Cooperative Fish And Wildlife Research Unit
Idaho Water Science Center - Idaho National Laboratory Project Office
Phone: 208-526-2438
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) Snake River Field Station
fresc_outreach@usgs.gov
Phone: 208-426-5200
Fax: 208-426-5210
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) Olympic Field Station
fresc_outreach@usgs.gov
Phone: 360-565-3041
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) Cascadia Field Station
fresc_outreach@usgs.gov
Phone: 206-616-1874
Fax: 206-685-0790
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) Corvallis Research Group
fresc_outreach@usgs.gov
Phone: 541-750-1030
Klamath Falls Field Station
Phone: (541) 273-8689
Fax: (541) 273-8692
Marrowstone Marine Field Station
Phone: (360) 385-1007
Fax: (360) 385-7207
Idaho Water Science Center - Boise Field Office
Phone: (208) 387-1300
Fax: (208) 387-1372
Idaho Water Science Center - Post Falls Field Office
Phone: 208-773-4938
Idaho Water Science Center - Groundwater Training Facility
Phone: 208-387-1392
Northwest Washington Field Office
Phone: (360) 312-8155 x2001
Fax: (360) 312-8565
Medford Field Office
Phone: 541-776-4256
Fax: 541-776-4257
Klamath Falls Field Office
Phone: 541-273-8689
Mid-Columbia Field Office
Phone: (509) 735-3739
Fax: (509) 735-3723
Upper Columbia Field Office
Phone: (509) 353-2649
Idaho Water Science Center - Idaho Falls Field Office
Phone: 208-529-4287