Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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: 18397

A conceptual site model of contaminant transport pathways from the Bremerton Naval Complex to Sinclair Inlet, Washington, 2011–21

Historical activities on the Bremerton Naval Complex (BNC) in Puget Sound, Washington, have resulted in Sinclair Inlet sediments with elevated concentrations of contaminants, including organic contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and trace elements including mercury. Six U.S. Geological Survey–U.S. Navy datasets have been collected since the last major assessment, in 2013, of soil and gr
Authors
Kathleen E. Conn, Sarah E. Janssen, Chad C. Opatz, Valerie A.L. Bright

Evaluation of groundwater resources in the Upper White River Basin within Mount Rainier National Park, Washington state, 2020

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Park Service, investigated groundwater gains and losses on the upper White River within Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. This investigation was conducted using stream discharge measurements at 14 locations within 7 reaches over a 6.5-mile river length from near the White River’s origin at the terminus of the Emmons Glaci
Authors
Leland T. Fuhrig, Andrew J. Long, Alexander O. Headman

Association of water arsenic with incident diabetes in U.S. adults: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and The Strong Heart Study

OBJECTIVEWe examined the association of arsenic in federally regulated community water systems (CWSs) and unregulated private wells with type 2 diabetes (T2D) incidence in the Strong Heart Family Study (SHFS), a prospective study of American Indian communities, and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a prospective study of racially and ethnically diverse urban U.S. communities.RESEAR
Authors
Maya Spaur, Marta Galvez-Fernandez, Qixuan Chen, Melissa Lombard, Benjamin Bostick, Pam Factor-Litvak, Amanda Fretts, Steven Shea, Ana Navas-Acien, Anne E Nigra

Environmental disturbances and restoration of salt marshes

Salt and brackish marshes (hereafter salt marshes) are the dominant coastal wetland in temperate and boreal intertidal settings. Human-enhanced disturbances threaten their persistence and functionality, with consequences to many ecosystem services. Restoration potentials are very site specific, varying by degree of disturbance and target goals. Global changes in climate and land-use will continue
Authors
Judith Weis, Lisamarie Windham-Myers

The effects of wastewater reuse on smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) relative abundance in the Shenandoah River Watershed, USA

Municipal and industrial wastewater effluent is an important source of water for lotic systems, especially during periods of low flow. The accumulated wastewater effluent flows—expressed as a percentage of total streamflow (ACCWW%)—contain chemical mixtures that pose a risk to aquatic life; fish may be particularly vulnerable when chronically exposed. Although there has been considerable focus on
Authors
Tyler Wagner, Paul McLaughlin, Kaycee E. Faunce, Samuel H. Austin, Kelly Smalling

Groundwater model of the Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon

Groundwater development, mainly for large-scale irrigation, has increased substantially in the Harney Basin of southeastern Oregon since 2010. Concurrently, some areas of the basin experienced groundwater-level declines of more than 100 feet, and some shallow wells have gone dry. The Oregon Water Resources Department has limited new groundwater development in the basin until an improved understand
Authors
Stephen B. Gingerich, Darrick E. Boschmann, Gerald H. Grondin, Halley J Schibel

Monitoring aquifer-storage change from artificial recharge with repeat microgravity along Santa Cruz River, Tucson, Arizona, 2019–22

The City of Tucson water utility, Tucson Water, began releasing treated effluent into the Santa Cruz River channel near downtown Tucson in 2019. This recharge project—the Heritage Project—is intended to create a reach of consistent flow in the channel and recharge water to the aquifer. Tracking the dispersal of recharged water is important for management decisions because groundwater movement depe
Authors
Libby M. Wildermuth, Jacob L. Conrad

Characterizing future streamflows in Massachusetts using stochastic modeling—A pilot study

Communities throughout Massachusetts face the potential effects of climate change, ranging from more extreme rainfall to more pronounced and frequent droughts. Understanding the effects of climate change on hydrology is important to State and community officials to evaluate the potential effects on infrastructure and water systems. To better understand the effects of climate change on hydrology, t
Authors
Scott A. Olson, Ghazal Shabestanipour, Jonathan Lamontagne, Scott Steinschneider

Results of 2018–19 water-quality and hydraulic characterization of aquifer intervals using packer tests and preliminary geophysical-log correlations for selected boreholes at and near the former Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster, Bucks County, Pennsylva

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected data on the vertical distribution of hydraulic head, specific capacity, and water quality using aquifer-interval-isolation tests and other vertical profiling methods in 15 boreholes completed in fractured sedimentary bedrock in Northampton, Warminster, and Warwick Townships, Bucks County, Pennsylvania during 2018–19. This work was done, in cooperation wi
Authors
Lisa A. Senior, Alex R. Fiore

Evaluation and refinement of chlorophyll-a algorithms for high-biomass blooms in San Francisco Bay (USA)

A massive bloom of the raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo occurred in summer 2022 in San Francisco Bay, causing widespread ecological impacts including events of low dissolved oxygen and mass fish kills. The rapidly evolving bloom required equally rapid management response, leading to the use of near-real-time image analysis of chlorophyll from the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) aboard Sen
Authors
Raphael M. Kudela, David B. Senn, Emily T. Richardson, Keith Bouma-Gregson, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Lawrence Sim

New diagnostic assessment of MCMC algorithm effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, and controllability

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a robust statistical approach for estimating posterior distributions. However, the significant computational cost associated with MCMC presents a considerable challenge, complicating the selection of an appropriate algorithm tailored to the specific problem at hand. This study introduces a novel and comprehensive framework for evaluating the performance of MCMC a
Authors
Hossein KavianiHamedani, Julianne D. Quinn, Jared David Smith

Flood of October 31 to November 3, 2019, East Canada Creek, West Canada Creek, and Sacandaga River Basins

Between October 31 and November 3, 2019, historic flooding in parts of the Mohawk Valley and southern Adirondack region resulted in one fatality, an estimated $33 million in damages, and the declaration of a state of emergency for 13 New York counties. Flooding resulted from high-intensity rainfall within a 24-hour period between October 31 and November 1, 2019, at the end of an October that had m
Authors
Alexander P. Graziano, Travis L. Smith, Arthur G. Lilienthal