Publications

Organic compounds derived from coal-tar wastes in a contaminated aquifer in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, were identified, and their partition coefficients between the tar phase and aqueous phase were determined and compared with the corresponding n-octanol/water partition coefficients. Coal tar contains numerous polycyclic aromatic compounds, many of which are suspected carcinogens or...

The city of Battle Creek has 30 wells in the Verona well field capable of yielding 300 to 1,000 gallons per minute each. During summer, total withdrawals are as little as 6,000 gallons per minute. In early 1984, only 9 to 12 of the wells were being used; the remaining wells were contaminated by volatile hydrocarbons.Ground water at and near Verona well field generally flows toward Battle...

Water resources data for the 1984 water year for Michigan consist of records of stage, discharge, and water quality of streams; stage, contents, and water quality of lakes and reservoirs; and water levels and water temperature of ground water. This report contains discharge records for 142 gaging stations; stage only records for 2 gaging stations; stage and contents for 5 lakes and...

Cyclic variations in bed load discharge at a point, which are an inherent part of the process of bed load movement, complicate calibration of bed load samplers and preclude the use of average rates to define sampling efficiencies. Calibration curves, rather than efficiencies, are derived by two independent methods using data collected with prototype versions of the Helley‐Smith sampler...

A three-dimensional, ground-water-flow model of the Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer and associated hydrogeologic units was developed to evaluate the movement of coal-tar derivatives from a coal-tar distillation and wood-preserving plant in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. A finite-difference grid was superimposed on the modeled area, which includes most of eastern Hennepin County. The...

The interaction between ground water and surface water in wetlands is complex and depends on the hydrologic setting of the particular wetland. Hydrologic characteristics have been used in Wisconsin to classify wetlands into four categories; surface-waterdepression wetlands, surface-water-slope wetlands, ground-waterdepression wetlands, and ground-water-slope wetlands, as described by...

Migration of mineralized water from abandoned subsurface coal mines in Monitor and Williams Townships was thought by many residents to have affected the quality of domestic ground-water supplies in the area. To investigate the possibility, wells were installed to obtain geologic data and water samples for chemical analysis; analysis also was made of concurrent related data collected by...

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), yellow perch (Perca flavescens) rock bass (Amploplites rupestris), black crappie (Pomozis nigromaculatus), and northern pike (Esox lucius) were found in Williams Lake, Hubbard County, Minnesota, during a fishery survey of the lake in late August 1982. The most abundant fish...

Four wetlands were compared with respect to their effectiveness in decreasing suspended solids and nutrient concentrations in runoff to lakes immediately downstream from the wetlands. An artificial impoundment in one of the wetlands increased settling of suspended solids. A decrease of nutrients in this wetland was probably the result of high assimilation rates associated with a dense...

A study by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1981 through 1984, in cooperation with the Carnelian-Marine Watershed District and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, investigated the causes of large lake-level fluctuations at Big Marine Lake. Historic records document that Big Marine Lake has changed substantially in surface area during the period 1847 through 1983; the maximum...

Glacial deposits, as much as 360 feet thick, underlie the study area. The upper 29 to 118 feet, a sand and gravel unit, is the aquifer tapped for water by all wells in the area. This unit is underlain by impermeable clay that is at least 100 feet thick. Ground-water flow is northeastward at an estimated rate of 3 to 6 feet per day. Hydraulic conductivities in the aquifer range from 85 to...

This report contains 17,607 miscellaneous stream discharge measurements made at 2,897 sites in Michigan. An average of 515 measurements were made each year from 1960 through 1984; most of these were made from April through October of each year. Miscellaneous measurements include periodic and occasional measurements of streamflow at sites where systematic records are unavailable.