Publications

The Scituate Reservoir is the primary source of drinking water for more than 60 percent of the population of Rhode Island. From October 1, 1982, to September 30, 2019, water years (WYs) 1983–2019 (a water year is the period between October 1 and September 30 and is designated by the year in which it ends), the Providence Water Supply Board maintained a fixed-frequency sampling program at 37 statio

Regulatory entities, such as the Minnesota Department of Health, monitor public water systems for conformance with Federal and State monitoring requirements and water-quality standards. Although some contaminants have Federal and (or) State regulations and guidance values, many contaminants, such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals, are unregulated in that only non-enforceable health-based guidance

Acoustic measurements of suspended sediment have the potential to allow remote, autonomous monitoring of sediment movements at much higher temporal resolution than traditional manual sampling methods. Although suspended sands present a challenging measurement problem due to their logarithmic distribution with depth, fine clay sediments are distributed evenly throughout a stream cross section, maki

Roadway deicing agents, including rock salt and brine containing NaCl, have had a profound impact on the water quality and aquatic health of rivers and streams in urbanized areas with temperate climates. Yet, few studies evaluate impacts to watersheds characterized by relatively low impervious surface cover (ISC; < 15 %). Here, we use long-term (1997-2019), monthly streamwater quality data combine

The U.S. Geological Survey worked in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the potential sources of fecal contamination entering South Oyster Bay, a shallow embayment on the southern shore of Long Island, New York. Water samples are routinely collected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in the bay and analyzed for fecal c

Stream morphology is affected by changes on the surrounding landscape. Understanding the effects of urbanization on stream morphology is a critical factor for land managers to maintain and improve vulnerable stream corridors in urbanizing landscapes. Stormwater practices are used in urban landscapes to manage runoff volumes and peak flows, potentially mitigating alterations to the flow regime that

The rapid expansion of CubeSat constellations could revolutionize the way inland and nearshore coastal waters are monitored from space. This potential stems from the ability of CubeSats to provide daily imagery with global coverage at meter-scale spatial resolution. In this study, we explore the unique opportunity to improve the retrieval of bathymetry offered by CubeSats, specifically those of th

Recently, the subsoils of ephemeral stream (arroyos) floodplains in the northern Chihuahuan Desert were discovered to contain large naturally occurring NO3− reservoirs (floodplain: ~38,000 kg NO3-N/ha; background: ~60 kg NO3-N/ha). These reservoirs may be mobilized through land use change or natural stream channel migration which makes differentiating between anthropogenic and natural groundwater

The increase in fires at the wildland–urban interface has raised concerns about the potential environmental impact of ash remaining after burning. Here, we examined the concentrations and speciation of iron-bearing nanoparticles in wildland–urban interface ash. Total iron concentrations in ash varied between 4 and 66 mg g−1. Synchrotron X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy of

Flood-frequency curves, critical for water infrastructure design, are typically developed based on a stationary climate assumption. However, climate changes are expected to violate this assumption. Here, we propose a new, climate-informed methodology for estimating flood-frequency curves under non-stationary future climate conditions. The methodology develops an asynchronous, semiparametric local-

Geophysical methods offer hydrogeologists unprecedented access to understanding subsurface parameters and processes. In this book, we outline the theory and application of electrical imaging methods, which inject current into the ground and measure the resultant potentials. These data are sensitive to rock type, grain size, porosity, pore fluid electrical conductivity, saturation, and temperature.

Bioaugmentation is a promising strategy for enhancing trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation in fractured rock. However, slow or incomplete biodegradation can lead to stalling at degradation byproducts such as 1,2-dichloroethene (cis-DCE) and vinyl chloride (VC). Over the course of 7 years, we examined the response of groundwater microbial populations in a bioaugmentation test where an emulsified veg