Publications

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program in the upper Snake River Basin study unit, land- and water-use data were used to describe activities that have potential effects on water quality, including biological conditions, in the basin. Land-use maps and estimates of water use by irrigated agriculture were needed for Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, and Mini

Fish assemblages and environmental variables were evaluated for 30 first- through seventh-order streams in the upper Snake River Basin, Idaho and western Wyoming. Data were collected as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program to characterize aquatic biota and associated habitats in surface water. Sampling sites represented major stream types in the basin large river, agricult

The potential for development of water resources in the Bannock Creek Basin is limited by water supply. Bannock Creek Basin covers 475 square miles in southeastern Idaho. Shoshone-Bannock tribal lands on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation occupy the northern part of the basin; the remainder of the basin is privately owned. Only a small amount of information on the hydrologic and water-quality chara

Factors related to contamination of ground water by dissolved nitrite plus nitrate as nitrogen (NO2+NO3-N) in parts of the upper Snake River Basin were evaluated at regional and local scales. Regional-scale relations between NO2+NO3-N concentrations and depth to first-encountered ground water, land use, precipitation, and soils were evaluated using a geographic information system. Local-scale rela

Payette Lake was studied during water years 1995-96 to determine the 20.5-square-kilometer lake's assimilative capacity for nutrients and, thus, its eutrophication potential. The study included quantification of hydrologic and nutrient budgets, characterization of water quality in the limnetic and littoral zones, development of an empirical nutrient load/lake response model, and estimation o

Total nitrogen input and loss from cattle manure, fertilizer, legume crops, precipitation, and domestic septic systems in the upper Snake River Basin, Idaho and western Wyoming, were estimated by county for water year 1990. The purpose of these estimations was to rank input of nitrogen by source, determine the amount of total nitrogen potentially available to both ground and surface water t

To ensure continued confidence in its products, the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey implemented a policy that all its scientific work be performed in accordance with a centrally managed quality-assurance program. This report establishes and documents a formal policy for current (1995) quality assurance within the Idaho District of the U.S. Geological Survey. Quality assuranc

The U.S. Geological Survey began a regional aquifer-system analysis of the Northern Rocky Mountains of northern and central Idaho and western Montana in 1990. The analysis helped establish a regional framework of information for aquifers in about 70 ntermontane basins in an area of 80,000 square miles. In many areas, ground water is the only suitable source of supply, yet little information is ava

Regional aquifers underlying the 15,600-square-mile Snake River Plain in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon was studied as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's Regional Aquifer-System Analysis program. The largest and most productive aquifers in the Snake River Plain are composed of Quaternary basalt of the Snake River Group, which underlies most of the 10,8000-square-mile eastern plain. Aquifer te

This volume presents statistical summaries of streamflow data for 257 gaging stations with 10 or more years of continuous record through September 1990. The gaging stations are located in Idaho and adjacent States. Volume 2 presents statistical summaries of streamflow data for 76 gaging stations with 5 to 9 years of continuous record, or with records of discharge measurements from springs, through

Water samples were collected from 903 wells in the Boise River Valley, Idaho, from January 1990 through December 1995. Selected well information and analyses of 1,357 water samples are presented. Analyses include physical properties ad concentrations of nutrients, bacteria, major ions, selected trace elements, radon-222, volatile organic compounds, and pesticides.

A comparison of 1970 and 1992 water-table configuration maps for the Boise area shows that the water table has declined about 10 feet in about 90 percent of the area. Declines exceeded 10 feet in about 50 percent of the area, 20 feet in about 10 percent of the area, and 30 feet in about 5 percent of the area. The largest declines were south of the Boise River between the Ridenbaugh and New York Ca