Publications

ABSTRACT: Most of the application of the organophosphate insecticide diazinon in the San Joaquin River Basin occurs in winter to control wood-boring insects in dormant almond orchards. A federalstate collaborative study found that diazinon accounted for most of the observed toxicity of San Joaquin River water in February 1993. Previous studies focused mainly on west-side inputs to the San Joaquin

Normally, slug test measurements are limited to the well in which the water level is perturbed. Consequently, it is often difficult to obtain reliable estimates of hydraulic properties, particularly if the aquifer is anisotropic or if there is a wellbore skin. In this investigation, we use partially penetrating stress and observation wells to evaluate specific storage, radial hydraulic conductivit

The formation and spatial distribution of phytoplankton blooms in estuaries are controlled by (1) local mechanisms, which determine the production-loss balance for a water column at a particular spatial location (i.e. control if a bloom is possible), and (2) transport-related mechanisms, which govern biomass distribution (i.e. control if and where a bloom actually occurs). In this study, the first

A band of seismicity transects the southern Sierra Nevada range between the northeastern end of the site of the 1952 MW (moment magnitude) 7.3 Kern County earthquake and the site of the 1946 MW 6.1 Walker Pass earthquake. Relocated earthquakes in this band, which lacks a surface expression, better delineate the northeast-trending seismic lineament and resolve complex structure near the Walker Pass

A regional-scale, steady-state, saturated-zone ground-water flow model was constructed to evaluate potential regional ground-water flow in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The model was limited to three layers in an effort to evaluate the characteristics governing large-scale subsurface flow. Geoscientific information systems (GSIS) were used to characterize the complex surface and subsurfa

An analytical method useful for the quantification of a range of pesticides and pesticide degradation products associated with suspended sediments was developed by testing a variety of extraction and cleanup schemes. The final extraction and cleanup methods chosen for use are suitable for the quantification of the listed pesticides using gas chromatography-ion trap mass spectrometry and the remova

ABSTRACT: Suspended sediment samples were collected in west-side tributaries and the main stem of the San Joaquin River, California, in June 1994 during the irrigation season and in January 1995 during a winter storm. These samples were analyzed for 15 organochiorine pesticides to determine their occurrence and their concentrations on suspended sediment and to compare transport during the irrigati

Acoustic swath mapping and sediment box coring conducted on the continental shelf near the mouth of the Eel River revealed regional variations in acoustic backscatter that can be related to the shelf sedimentology. The acoustic-backscatter variations observed on the shelf were unusually narrow compared to the response of similar sediment types documented in other areas. However, the acoustic data

Mercury poses a water-quality problem for California's Sacramento River, a large river with a mean annual discharge of over 650 m3/s. This river discharges into the San Francisco Bay, and numerous fish species of the bay and river contain mercury levels high enough to affect human health if consumed. Two possible sources of mercury are the mercury mines in the Coast Ranges and the gold mines in th

To better understand the flow processes, solute-transport processes, and ground-water/surface-water interactions on the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, California, a 24-hour fluorescent-dye tracer study was performed under steady-state flow conditions on a 45-km reach of the river. The study reach includes perennial (uppermost and lowermost) subreaches and ephemeral subreaches of the lower Pi

The δ13C values of individual trihalomethanes (THM) formed on reaction of chlorine with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leached from maize (corn; Zea maize L.) and Scirpus acutus(an aquatic bulrush), and with DOC extracted from agricultural drainage waters were determined using purge and trap introduction into a gas chromatograph-combustion-isotope ratio monitoring mass spectrometer. We observed a

Ground water production wells commonly are designed to maximize well yield and, therefore, may be screened over several water-bearing zones. These water-bearing zones usually are identified, and their hydrogeologic characteristics and water quality are inferred, on the basis of indirect data such as geologic and geophysical logs. Production well designs based on these data may result in wells that