Publications

The Grand Calumet River, in northwestern Indiana, drains a heavily industrialized area along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Steel production and petroleum refining are two of the area’s predominant industries. High-temperature processes, such as fossil fuel combustion and steel production, release contaminants to the atmosphere that may result in wet deposition being a major contributor to m

The lower Illinois River Basin (LIRB) study unit is part of the National Water-Quality Assessment program that includes studies of most major aquifer systems in the United States. Retrospective water-quality data from community-supply wells in the LIRB and in the rest of Illinois are grouped by aquifer and depth interval. Concentrations of selected chemical constituents in water samples from comm

In 1980, the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers transported a sulfate load of 1.2 million and 1.35 million tons, respectively, to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. The Monongahela River Basin had a sulfate yield of 184 tons per square mile per year compared to 105 tons per square mile per year for the Allegheny River Basin. Within the large Allegheny and Monongahela River Basins, the subbasins with the

The James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge occupies two lowland marsh and pond complexes on the northern coastal plain of Oahu: the mostly natural ponds and wetlands of the Punamano Unit and the constructed ponds of the Kii Unit. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the Refuge primarily to protect and enhance habitat for four endangered species of Hawaiian waterbirds. Kii Unit is fed by art

The Great and Little Miami River Basins drain approximately 7,354 square miles in southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana and are included in the more than 50 major river basins and aquifer systems selected for water-quality assessment as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Principal streams include the Great and Little Miami Rivers in Ohio and the Wh

Puget Sound basin streams during 1995-98 met most guidelines and criteria. Seventy-four manmade compounds were detected and different mixtures linked to land use. Urban expansion into forested areas is changing stream habitats--urban and agricultural streams are warmer and support less diverse insect populations than streams in forested areas. Elevated nitrate concentrations and the presence of ma

Data that describe the physical characteristics of stream subbasins upstream from selected sites on streams in the Pine River Basin, located in central Minnesota, are presented in this report. The physical characteristics are the drainage area of the subbasin, the percentage area of the subbasin covered only by lakes, the percentage area of the subbasin covered by both lakes and wetlands, the main

This report is one in an annual series of reports that depicts water-level altitudes and water-level changes since 1977 and compaction since 1973 in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers in the Houston-Galveston region, Texas. The report, prepared in cooperation with the City of Houston and the Harris-Galveston Coastal Subsidence District, presents maps for the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers showing

This report is one in an annual series of reports that depicts water-level altitudes and water-level changes since 1990 in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers in Fort Bend County and adjacent areas, Texas.  The report, prepared in cooperation with the Fort Bend Subsidence District, presents maps for the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers showing the approximate water-level altitudes in wells in 2000 (f

Along the United States-Mexico border region, numerous Federal, State, and local agencies; nongovernmental organizations (NGO); and researchers collect water-quality data for many purposes. The water community uses a number of documented and undocumented procedures, some of which have specific data-quality objectives (DQO) and data-information objectives. This mix of procedures results in uncertai

This report summarizes a comprehensive study and development of the method documented in Owen-Joyce and others (2000). That report and one for the area upstream from Laguna Dam (Wilson and Owen-Joyce, 1994) document the accounting-surface method to identify wells that yield water that will be replaced by water from the Colorado River. Downstream from Laguna Dam, the Colorado River is the source f

Organochlorine pesticides were heavily used from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s. The persistence of organochlorine pesticides, their tendency to accumulate in soil, sediment, and biota, and their harmful effects on wildlife brought this class of compounds into disfavor and eventually resulted in restriction or cancellation of most of them in the United States (Nowell and others, 1999). Despite use