Publications
Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).
Filter Total Items: 4094
Virus and bacteria transport in a sandy aquifer, Cape Cod, MA
Transport of the bacteriophage PRD-1, bacteria, and latex microspheres was studied in a sandy aquifer under natural-gradient conditions. The field injection was carried out at the U.S. Geological Survey's Toxic Substances Hydrology research site on Cape Cod. The three colloids and a salt tracer (Br−) moved along the same path. There was significant attenuation of the phage, with PRD-1 peak concent
Authors
Roger C. Bales, Shimin Li, Kimberly M. Maguire, Moyasar T. Yahya, Charles P. Gerba, Ronald W. Harvey
Nitrate transport and transformation processes in unsaturated porous media
A series of experiments was conducted on two contrasting agricultural soils to observe the influence of soil texture, preferential flow, and plants on nitrate transport and denitrification under unsaturated conditions. Calcium nitrate fertilizer was applied to the surface of four large undisturbed soil cores (30 cm diameter by 40 cm height). Two of the cores were a structured clay obtained from ce
Authors
James A. Tindall, Robin L. Petrusak, Peter B. McMahon
Bottled water, spas, and early years of water chemistry
Although hot springs have been used and enjoyed for thousands of years, it was not until the late 1700s that they changed the course of world civilization by being the motivation for development of the science of chemistry. The pioneers of chemistry such as Priestley, Cavendish, Lavoisier, and Henry were working to identify and generate gases, in part, to determine their role in carbonated beverag
Authors
William Back, Edward R. Landa, Lisa Meeks
Selected meteorological data for an arid site near Beatty, Nye County, Nevada, calendar years 1990 and 1991
Selected meteorological data were collected at a study site adjacent to a low-level radioactive-waste burial facility near Beatty, Nevada, for calendar years 1990 and 1991. Data were collected in support of ongoing studies to estimate the potential for downward movement of radionuclides into the unsaturated sediments beneath waste-burial trenches at the facility. The data include air temperature,
Authors
James L. Wood, Brian J. Andraski
Impact of the lower Alamosa River water on alfalfa, southwestern San Luis Valley, Colorado: 1994 follow-up study
No abstract available.
Authors
James A. Erdman, Kathleen S. Smith
Chemical evolution of groundwater near a sinkhole lake, northern Florida: 2. Chemical patterns, mass-transfer modeling, and rates of chemical reactions
Chemical patterns along evolutionary groundwater flow paths in silicate and carbonate aquifers were interpreted using solute tracers, carbon and sulfur isotopes, and mass balance reaction modeling for a complex hydrologic system involving groundwater inflow to and outflow from a sinkhole lake in northern Florida. Rates of dominant reactions along defined flow paths were estimated from modeled mass
Authors
Brian G. Katz, Niel Plummer, Eurybiades Busenberg, Kinga M. Revesz, Blair F. Jones, Terrie M. Lee
Chemical evolution of groundwater near a sinkhole lake, northern Florida: 1. Flow patterns, age of groundwater, and influence of lakewater leakage
Leakage from sinkhole lakes significantly influences recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer in poorly confined sediments in northern Florida. Environmental isotopes (oxygen 18, deuterium, and tritium), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs: CFC-11, CCl3F; CFC-12, CCl2F2; and CFC-113, C2Cl3F3), and solute tracers were used to investigate groundwater flow patterns near Lake Barco, a seepage lake in a mantled ka
Authors
Brian G. Katz, Terrie M. Lee, Niel Plummer, Eurybiades Busenberg
Chemical and isotopic methods for quantifying ground-water recharge in a regional, semiarid environment
The High Plains aquifer underlying the semiarid Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico, USA was used to illustrate solute and isotopic methods for evaluating recharge fluxes, runoff, and spatial and temporal distribution of recharge. The chloride mass-balance method can provide, under certain conditions, a time-integrated technique for evaluation of recharge flux to regional aquifers that is
Authors
Warren W. Wood, Ward E. Sanford
Measurements of aquifer-storage change and specific yield using gravity surveys
Pinal Creek is an intermittent stream that drains a 200-square-mile alluvial basin in central Arizona. Large changes in water levels and aquifer storage occur in an alluvial aquifer near the stream in response to periodic recharge and ground-water withdrawals. Outflow components of the ground-water budget and hydraulic properties of the alluvium are well-defined by field measurements; however, dat
Authors
D. R. Pool, J.H. Eychaner
Combining the Neuman and Boulton models for flow to a well in an unconfined aquifer
A Laplace transform solution is presented for flow to a well in a homogeneous, water-table aquifer with noninstanta-neous drainage of water from the zone above the water table. The Boulton convolution integral is combined with Darcy's law and used as an upper boundary condition to replace the condition used by Neuman. Boulton's integral derives from the assumption that water drained from the unsat
Authors
Allen F. Moench
Use of a square-array direct-current resistivity method to detect fractures in crystalline bedrock in New Hampshire
Azimuthal square-array direct-current (dc) resistivity soundings were used to detect fractures in bedrock in the Mirror Lake watershed in Grafton County, New Hampshire. Soundings were conducted at a site where crystalline bedrock underlies approximately 7 m (meters) of glacial drift. Measured apparent resistivities changed with the orientation of the array. Graphical interpretation of the square-a
Authors
J.W. Lane, F. P. Haeni, W.M. Watson
Effects of colloids on metal transport in a river receiving acid mine drainage, upper Arkansas River, Colorado, U.S.A.
Inflows of metal-rich, acidic water that drain from mine dumps and tailings piles in the Leadville, Colorado, area enter the non-acidic water in the upper Arkansas River. Hydrous iron oxides precipitate as colloids and move downstream in suspension, particularly downstream from California Gulch, which has been the major source of metal loads. The colloids influence the concentrations of metals dis
Authors
Briant A. Kimball