Publications

The Neversink River, in the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York State, feeds the Neversink Reservoir, which diverts 85 percent of the river’s flow to New York City. Acidification of several headwater reaches has affected macroinvertebrate assemblages throughout the river system above the reservoir, and the alteration of flow conditions below the reservoir dam has affected macroinvertebrate

Onondaga Lake in Onondaga County, New York, has been identified as one of the Nation’s most contaminated lakes as a result of industrial and sanitary-sewer discharges and stormwater nonpoint sources, and has received priority cleanup status under the national Water Resources Development Act of 1990. A basin-scale precipitation-runoff model of the Onondaga Lake basin was identified as a desirable w

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a hydrogeologic study that included the development of a groundwater-flow model of the glacial-drift aquifer in the Onondaga Trough near Syracuse, N.Y., which extends from the Valley Heads Moraine near Tully, N.Y., to Onondaga Lake (fig. 1). Glacial sediments within the Onondaga Trough contain freshwater, saline water, and brine, which has histo

Water samples were collected from 27 wells from August through November 2006 to characterize ground-water quality in the Mohawk River Basin. The Mohawk River Basin covers 3,500 square miles in central New York; most of the basin is underlain by sedimentary bedrock, including shale, sandstone, and carbonates. Sand and gravel form the most productive aquifers in the basin. Samples were collected fro

Ground-water flow was simulated using variable-direction anisotropy in hydraulic conductivity to represent the folded, fractured sedimentary rocks that underlie the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and West Virginia. The anisotropy is a consequence of the orientations of fractures that provide preferential flow paths through the rock, such that the direction of maximum hydraulic conductivity is orien

Cross-borehole flow tests provided insights into hydraulic connections in fractured and dipping mudstone and sandstone that were consistent with the lithostratigraphic and structural framework of a VOCcontaminated bedrock research site in west-central New Jersey. Two cross-borehole flow tests were completed. Each test involved measurement and analysis of transient flow in a newly installed deep co

In 2003, a study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy and precision of 10 laboratories that analyze water-quality samples for phosphorus concentrations in the Catskill Mountain region of New York State. Many environmental studies in this region rely on data from these different laboratories for water-quality analyses, and the data may be used in watershed modeling and management decisions. There

Equations that relate drainage area to bankfull discharge and channel characteristics (such as width, depth, and cross-sectional area) at gaged sites are needed to define bankfull discharge and channel characteristics at ungaged sites and can be used for stream-restoration and protection projects, stream-channel classification, and channel assessments. These equations are intended to serve as a gu

Equations that relate drainage area to bankfull discharge and channel characteristics (width, depth, and cross-sectional area) at gaged sites are needed to define bankfull-discharge and channel characteristics at ungaged sites and to provide information for watershed assessments, stream-channel classification, and design of stream-restoration projects. Such equations are most accurate if derived f

Halite brine (saturation ranging from 45 to 80 percent) lies within glacial-drift deposits that fill the Onondaga Trough, a 40-km long bedrock valley deepened by Pleistocene ice near Syracuse, N.Y. The most concentrated brine occupies the northern end of the trough, more than 15 kilometers (km) beyond the northern limit of halite beds in the Silurian Salina Group, the assumed source of salt. The c

Water samples were collected from 7 community water system wells and 15 private domestic wells throughout the Genesee River Basin in New York State (downstream from the Pennsylvania border) from October 2005 through March 2006 and analyzed to characterize the chemical quality of ground water in the basin. The wells were selected to represent areas of greatest ground-water use and to provide a repr

Nitrogen loading to Jamaica Bay, a highly urbanized estuary on the southern shore of western Long Island, New York, has increased from an estimated rate of 35.6 kilograms per day (kg/d) under predevelopment conditions (pre-1900), chiefly as nitrate plus nitrite from ground-water inflow, to an estimated 15,800 kilograms per day as total nitrogen in 2005. The principal point sources are wastewater-t