Publications

The Southeast Coast Network (SECN) has initiated a monitoring effort to assess habitat conditions in wadeable streams at national parks, recreation areas, battlefields, and monuments in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. This monitoring effort includes Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Congaree National Park, Horseshoe Bend National Milit

Rising air temperatures are projected to continue to drive up urban, agricultural, and rangeland water use, straining both surface and groundwater resources. Scientific studies have shown that managing farms, ranches, and public lands to increase soil carbon can increase soil waterholding capacity and increase hydrologic benefits such as increased baseflows and aquifer recharge, reduced flooding a

In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Environmental Health Mission Area, initiated the Tapwater Exposure Study as part of an infrastructure project to assess human exposure to potential threats from complex mixtures of contaminants. In the pilot phase (2016), samples were collected from 11 States throughout the United States, and in the second phase (2017), the study focused on the Greater Ch

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Environmental Health Mission Area (EHMA) is providing comprehensive science on sources, movement, and transformation of contaminants and pathogens in watershed and aquifer drinking-water supplies and in built water and wastewater infrastructure (referred to as the USGS Water and Wastewater Infrastructure project) in the Greater Chicago Area and elsewhere in the Un

The Sierra Nevada region is critical to the environment and economy of California. Its places and peoples provideessential natural resources including fresh water, clean power, working lands, and famous wilderness. The regionencompasses tremendous geographical, climatological, and ecological diversity that spans majestic mountains todeep desert basins. The climate consists of cool, wet winters and

Land subsidence in the United States is inextricably linked to the development of groundwater—one of the Nation’s most valuable natural resources. More than 80 percent of the identified subsidence in the United States is a consequence of anthropogenic impact on water resources. Three processes account for most of the water-related subsidence—the compaction of aquifer systems, the drainage and subs

Centralized waste treatment facilities (CWTs) in Pennsylvania discharged wastewater from conventional and unconventional oil and gas (O&G) wells into surface waters until 2011, when a voluntary request from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) encouraged recycling rather than treating and discharging unconventional O&G wastewater. To determine the effect of this request

Elevated tritium, radiocarbon, Hg, and volatile organic compounds associated with low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) at the USGS Amargosa Desert Research Site (ADRS) have stimulated research on factors and processes that affect contaminant gas distribution and transport. Consequently, we examined the sources, mixing, and biogeochemistry of CO2 and CH4, two additional important species in the unsat

The peak fallout in 1963 of the radionuclide 137Cs has been used to date lake, reservoir, continental shelf, and wetland sedimentary deposits. In wetlands such dating is used to project the ability of wetlands to keep pace with sea level rise and develop strategies for mitigating carbon pollution using biological carbon sequestration. Here we demonstrate that reliable 137Cs profiles are increasing

Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were introduced to the Esopus Creek watershed in the Catskill Mountains of New York in the early 1880s. This introduction created a renowned naturalized fishery that remains important to the local economy today. The objective of this study was to determine whether the growth and condition of Rainbow Trout in the Ashokan Reservoir changed following the establishmen

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed the South Carolina StreamStats application in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation. StreamStats (https://water.usgs.gov/osw/streamstats/) is a map-based web application that provides analytical tools useful for water-resources planning and management and many engineering purposes. The web application delineates drainage areas

The ecotoxicological effects of hydrophobic organic compound (HOC) contamination in sediment are often assessed using laboratory exposures of cultured invertebrates to field-collected sediment. The use of a sediment holding time (storage at 4°C) between field sampling and the beginning of the bioassay is common practice, yet the effect of holding time on the reliability of bioassay results is larg