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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: 18419

Groundwater quality in the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, central United States

Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Ozark Plateaus aquifer system constitutes one of the important aquifer systems being evaluat
Authors
James A. Kingsbury

Groundwater quality in the Columbia Plateau basaltic-rock aquifers, northwestern United States

Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water. The Columbia Plateau basaltic-rock aquifers constitute one of the important resources being evaluated.
Authors
MaryLynn Musgrove

Groundwater quality in the High Plains aquifer

Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water. The High Plains aquifer constitutes one of the important aquifers being evaluated.
Authors
MaryLynn Musgrove

Evaluation of restoration alternatives using hydraulic models of lake outflow at Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Oregon

Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge near the city of Gaston in northwestern Oregon was established in 2013, and planning is underway to restore a more natural lake and wetland system after more than 100 years of agricultural activity on the lakebed. Several water-management and restoration alternatives are under consideration, one of which involves opening and reconnecting Wapato Lake’s outlet to
Authors
Stewart A. Rounds, Stephen L. Pilson, Annett B. Sullivan, Adam J. Stonewall

Evaluation of restoration alternatives using water-budget tools for the Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Oregon

The lakebed in Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in northwestern Oregon was farmed for decades prior to the establishment of the refuge in 2013. Planning for restoration of these lands required extensive data collection and construction of a water budget and tools to design and evaluate potential restoration strategies. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Authors
Stewart A. Rounds, T. Zach Freed, Daniel T. Snyder, Cassandra D. Smith, Micelis C. Doyle, Erin Holmes, Curt Mykut, Tim Mayer, Erin Stockenberg, Stephen L. Pilson

Hydrologic monitoring networks in the Death Valley Regional Flow System, Nye County, Nevada and Inyo County, California

IntroductionWater is an important resource in the arid southwest region of the United States where there is a limited supply of surface water and groundwater. In the Death Valley regional groundwater flow system (DVRFS) in southern Nevada and eastern California, groundwater is the main source of supply for agricultural, commercial, and domestic water needs.For over four decades, the United States
Authors
Steven R. Reiner, Peggy E. Elliott, Katherine J. Earp, Wayne R. Belcher

Combining models of the critical streakline and the cross-sectional distribution of juvenile salmon to predict fish routing at river junctions

Because fish that enter the interior Delta have poorer survival than those emigrating via the Sacramento River, understanding the mechanisms that drive entrainment rates at side channel junctions is critically important for the management of imperiled juvenile salmon. Here, we implement a previously proposed process-based conceptual model to study entrainment rates based on three linked elements:
Authors
Dalton Hance, Russell Perry, Jon R. Burau, Aaron R. Blake, Paul Stumpner, Xiaochun Wang, Adam Pope

NGWA Groundwater Modeling Advisory Panel Survey on the Use of Uncertainty Analysis in Groundwater Modeling

This white paper provides the results of a survey by members of the NGWA Groundwater Modeling Advisory Panel to assess the use of uncertainty analysis in groundwater modeling.The objective of the survey was to improve understanding of the use of uncertainty analysis in practical groundwater modeling projects subject to real-world constraints, such as limited budgets and tight deadlines.
Authors
Steve Luis, Pete Schulmeyer, David Bean, Connor P. Newman, Dan Puddephatt, Rodney A. Sheets, Randall J. Hunt

Comparing discharge computation methods in the Great Lakes connecting channels

Records of discharge for the connecting channels within the Great Lakes Basin are important to national governments of Canada and the United States and the various water management agencies and users in the basin. For more than 100 years, the official discharge records for the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, two connecting channels within the Great Lakes Basin, have been computed using various stage
Authors
Aaron F Thompson, Sandrina N Rodrigues, Jeanette C Fooks, Kevin Oberg, Tim J Calappi

Hydrogeologic characterization of the Hualapai Plateau on the western Hualapai Indian Reservation, northwestern Arizona

This study was developed to assess if groundwater from the western Hualapai Plateau could be used to supply developments in the Grand Canyon West area of the Hualapai Indian Reservation and to collect hydrogeologic data for future use in a numerical groundwater model for the reservation. Ground-based geophysical surveys; existing well, spring, and other hydrogeologic information from previous stud
Authors
Jon P. Mason, Jamie P. Macy, Donald J. Bills, Bruce Gungle, Casey J.R. Jones

Groundwater availability in the Truxton basin, northwestern Arizona

This is a summary chapter of a multichapter volume that includes a brief description of the study area and descriptions of the hydrogeologic framework, numerical groundwater-flow model, and estimates of simulated changes to groundwater levels of the Truxton aquifer.
Authors
Jon P. Mason, Jacob E. Knight, Lyndsay B. Ball, Jeffrey R. Kennedy, Donald J. Bills, Jamie P. Macy

Gravity surveys and depth to bedrock in the Truxton basin, northwestern Arizona

The volume of available groundwater and the effect of groundwater pumping in an alluvial basin is influenced in part by the shape and depth of the basin boundary, which commonly consists of low-permeability bedrock. To better understand the shape and depth of basin fill in the Truxton valley in Arizona, new gravity data were collected at 149 stations in 2017 and 2018. These data, combined with his
Authors
Jeffrey R. Kennedy