Research Opportunity Description
The California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program Priority Basin Project (GAMA-PBP) is a cooperative project between the USGS California Water Science Center and the California State Water Boards. The overall objective of the GAMA-PBP is to provide scientific information about groundwater quality in aquifers used for drinking water supplies in California, information that may be useful to agencies making water resource management decisions and that will contribute to public and scientific understanding of groundwater quality issues. Groundwater provides approximately half of the water used for drinking water supplies in California, and groundwater quality and availability are affected by a complex interplay of hydrologic, climatic, water-management, geologic, land-use, regulatory, and societal factors.
Work done by the GAMA-PBP in 2004-2024 is described on the project website and summarized briefly here. The first two phases of the project were based on comprehensive groundwater-quality sampling of about 3,400 wells for statewide assessments of groundwater used by public-supply wells (2004-2012) and domestic wells (2012-present), and on repeat sampling of about 700 of those wells to monitor trends in groundwater quality. Products of these first two phases included: 1) Assessments of the status of groundwater quality at groundwater basin, regional, and statewide scales. 2) In-depth analyses of occurrence of constituents of concern, such as nitrate, arsenic, uranium fluoride, hexavalent chromium, fumigants, hydrocarbons, perchlorate, and pharmaceuticals, at regional and statewide scales using a variety of statistical, geochemical, and modeling approaches. 3) In-depth analyses of processes affecting groundwater quality and/or availability, such as effects of climate, water use, and land use on groundwater recharge, relationships between changes in groundwater levels and changes in water quality, and use of groundwater age distributions for prediction of groundwater-basin scale of migration of modern groundwater containing anthropogenic contaminants to wells. 4) Development of tools for data exploration and visualization.
The next phase of the GAMA-PBP in 2025-2031 will be focused on understanding the drivers of changes in groundwater quality, and on continued assessment of groundwater quality in resources used by domestic wells. The Fellow would be part of the team designing and implementing the overall GAMA-PBP, and conduct research of their own within the general framework of the project. Scientists in the USGS California Water Science Center are expected to communicate with the water community and cooperators to ensure that research addresses relevant problems and products are useful.
The GAMA-PBP will include sampling of primarily domestic wells statewide and compilation of data from other sources to provide basic data for the continuing status assessments and identification of water-quality trends. Proposed research must fit within the broad mandate of the GAMA-PBP to investigate water-quality and water availability in aquifers used for drinking water supply in California and include use of data collected by the project. Example topics may include but are not limited to: climate change and groundwater recharge, groundwater-surface water interaction, contaminant fate and transport, relation between water use and water-quality, predictive modeling of water quality, development of data analysis and visualization tools, groundwater-supply reliability and groundwater quality for disadvantaged communities, groundwater-quality considerations for managed-aquifer recharge, and recharge to fractured-rock aquifer systems in areas outside of groundwater basins.
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the Research Advisor(s) early in the application process to discuss project ideas.
Proposed Duty Station(s)
Sacramento, California
San Diego, California
Areas of PhD
Geochemistry, hydrology, earth science, geology, environmental studies, water resources, or related fields (candidates holding a Ph.D. in other disciplines, but with extensive knowledge and skills relevant to the Research Opportunity may be considered).
Qualifications
Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Physical Scientist, Research Hydrologist, Research Geologist, or Research Chemist.
(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above. However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Human Resources specialist.)
