Urban Water Monitoring

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been collecting streamflow data in North Carolina for more than 100 years. In the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County area, a hydrologic data-collection network has been established to collect not only streamflow data but also rainfall data. In response to the floods of August 1995 and July 1997, the U.S. Geological Survey Cooperative Water Program and Charlotte...

The South Atlantic Water Science Center is a participant in the Southeast Stream Quality Assessment (SESQA) which covers the southeastern region of the Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA). The goal of the study is to determine how stream ecology is affected by chemical and physical stressors in small streams? The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is addressing this question through studies of...

The New Hope arm of Jordan Lake, located in Chatham County, North Carolina, serves as a drinking-water supply for the Towns of Cary, Apex, and Morrisville. The reservoir is listed as impaired due to nutrient over-enrichment and occasionally experiences algal blooms and fish kills. In order to evaluate effects of installing a vertical-mixing system on the New Hope arm of Jordan Lake, the U.S...

Past stormwater monitoring has indicated that bridge deck runoff has relatively high concentrations of a variety of constituents such as nutrients, solids, pesticides, trace metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The objective of this investigation is to quantify the downstream changes in receiving water-quality conditions during periods of observable stormwater runoff from selected...

Falls Lake and Jordan Lake are included in the North Carolina Division of Water Quality's 303(d) list of "impaired" waters due to violations of the State chlorophyll-a standard caused by excessive nutrient inputs. Scientific data are needed allocate resources to achieve nutrient reduction targets have been adopted for the Falls Lake and Jordan Lake watersheds for stormwater, as well as for...

Fort Gordon is a U.S. Department of the Army facility located in east-central Georgia, approximately 10 miles west of Augusta, Georgia). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) South Atlantic Water Science Center is working cooperatively with the U.S. Department of the Army Environmental and Natural Resources Management Office of the U.S. Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon to assess the quality of...

Peachtree Creek WaterWatch, Atlanta, GA Peachtree Creek is a major tributary to the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, GA. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been monitoring stream stage and streamflow at or near the Northside Drive gage location since 1958. The Peachtree Creek watershed occupies a large portion of the northeast metro Atlanta area and collects precipitation runoff that drains into...