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Publications

This list of Water Resources Mission Area publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists. A searchable database of all USGS publications can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.

Filter Total Items: 18420

Determination of stream reaeration coefficients by use of tracers

Stream reaeration is the physical absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere by a flowing stream. This is the primary process by which a stream replenishes the oxygen consumed in the biodegradation of organic wastes. Prior to 1965, reaeration rate coefficients could be estimated only by indirect methods. In 1965, a direct method of measuring stream reaeration coefficients was developed whereby a ra
Authors
F. A. Kilpatrick, R. E. Rathbun, Nobuhiro Yotsukura, G.W. Parker, L. L. DeLong

Geohydrologic aspects for siting and design of low-level radioactive-waste disposal

The objective for siting and design of low-level radioactive-waste repository sites is to isolate the waste from the biosphere until the waste no longer poses an unacceptable hazard as a result of radioactive decay. Low-level radioactive waste commonly is isolated at shallow depths with various engineered features to stabilize the waste and to reduce its dissolution and transport by ground water.
Authors
M. S. Bedinger

Statistical analysis relating well yield to construction practices and siting of wells in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge provinces of North Carolina

A statistical analysis was made of data from more than 6,200 water wells drilled in the fractured crystalline rocks of the Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and western edge of the Coastal Plain where crystalline rocks underlie sediments at shallow depths. The study area encompassed 65 counties in western North Carolina, an area of 30,544 square miles, comprising nearly two-thirds of the State. Additional wat
Authors
Charles C. Daniel

Water movement in the unsaturated zone at a low-level radioactive-waste burial site near Barnwell, South Carolina

Four unsaturated-zone monitoring sites and a meteorologic station were installed at the low-level radioactive-waste burial site near Barnwell, S.C., to investigate the geohydrologic and climatologic factors affecting water movement in the unsaturated zone. The study site is located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The unsaturated zone consists of a few centimeters to more than 1 meter of surface san
Authors
Kevin F. Dennehy, Peter B. McMahon

Effects of controlled agricultural practices on water quality in the Minnesota sand-plain aquifer

Recent studies of Minnesota's sand plains indicate that ground-water chemistry is related to agricultural practices. Surficial sand-plain aquifers cover 8,000,000 acres of Minnesota and are a major source of water for domestic use, irrigation, and some municipal systems. The sand-plain aquifers consist of sand and gravel deposits that are from 20 to greater than 100 feet thick and are covered by a
Authors
H. W. Anderson, J.D. Stoner

Effects of agriculture on quality of water in surficial sand-plain aquifers in Douglas, Kandiyohi, Pope, and Stearns counties, Minnesota

The 245 water samples collected from 56 wells at 45 sites in surficial sand-plain aquifers that underlie 600 square miles of Douglas, Kandiyohi, Pope, and Stearns Counties in west-central Minnesota contained wide ranges in concentrations of some constituents--sulfate 2 to 160 mg/L (milligrams per liter), chloride 1.6 to 64 mg/L, nitrite plus nitrate nitrogen < (less than) 0.1 to 72 mg/L, ammonia <
Authors
H. W. Anderson

Groundwater velocity magnitude in radionuclide transport calculations

Analytical solutions have been developed for many conceptual models of solute transport in groundwater (Bear 1979). Although these models usually rely on assumptions too restrictive for accurate description of actual field situations, they are useful in understanding groundwater transport and in evaluating the relative importance of the subsurface processes affecting transport. In addition, these
Authors
Daniel J. Goode

Ground-water influences on wetlands at Indiana Dunes, Northwest Indiana

No abstract available.
Authors
Robert J. Shedlock, N. L. Loiacono, Thomas E. Imbrigiotta

Nonparametric statistical methods for comparing two sites based on data with multiple nondetect limits

As concern over the effects of trace amounts of pollutants has increased, so has the need for statistical methods that deal appropriately with data that include values reported as “less than” the detection limit. It has become increasingly common for water quality data to include censored values that reflect more than one detection limit for a single analyte. For such multiply censored data sets,
Authors
Steven P. Millard, Steven J. Deverel

Microbial degradation of crude oil and some model hydrocarbons

Research on microbial degradation of crude oil in the shallow subsurface at a spill site near Bemidji, Minn. (fig. C-l), began in 1983 (Hull, 1984; Chang and Ehrlich, 1984). The rate and extent of crude oil and model hydrocarbon biodegradation by the indigenous microbial community was measured in the laboratory at several concentrations of inorganic nutrients, conditions of oxygen availability, in
Authors
Fu-Hsian Chang, N.N. Noben, Danny Brand, Marc F. Hult