Environmental Health: Science to Support Natural Resource Use
The Environmental Health Program integrates multi-disciplinary research to tackle the environmental challenges that impact the nation's natural resource assets. By providing comprehensive research and data, the program assesses both actual and perceived risks associated with environmental contaminants and pathogens while supporting variety of uses of our natural resources.
Sustainable Resource Management:
Promotes collaboration for the extraction and use of energy and mineral resources, ensuring environmental protection and economic vitality.
Public Health Protection:
Ensures safe drinking water and food supply by monitoring contaminants and addressing harmful algal blooms, reducing risks to human health and ecosystems.
Conservation of Natural Resources:
Supports the viability of hunting and fishing resources to maintain ecological balance and contribute to economic well-being.
Collaboration for Energy and Mineral Production
The oil and gas sector are crucial to global and national economies, contributing to job creation, revenue generation, and energy supply. In partnership with the oil and gas industry, the USGS is conducting science and research to support a balanced approach to economically and environmentally secure energy and mineral production.
Mineral mining is a crucial component of a healthy economy, with U.S. mines producing an estimated 106 billion dollars worth of nonfuel mineral commodities. To address the demand for critical minerals and rare earth metals, USGS is collaborating with the Department of Defense, private sector partners, and academic institutions to promote the environmentally sound extraction of rare earth elements and critical minerals essential for U.S. strategic national security goals.
- Maximize Recovery of Minerals and Metals: Characterize the mineralogy and geochemistry of ores and their associated by-products aims at maximizing recovery while minimizing the release of contaminants.
- Reuse of Production Byproducts: Develop strategies for the reuse of byproducts to decrease water use and minimize environmental effects, including cost-saving produced water treatment and reuse. Over 20 billion barrels of produced water are generated annually in the U.S.
- Characterization of Production Waste Materials: Determine the content of waste materials, like spent drilling fluids and biosolids, to support cost-effective alternatives to landfill disposal. Landfill disposal costs for these waste are approximately 60 dollars per ton. With 1.4 billion tons of waste generated annually, this practice can be estimated to be saving these industries from paying disposal costs in excess of 80 billion dollars per year.
- Protection of Natural Resources and Inform Regulation: Assess the quality of water bodies impacted by oil and gas extraction while understanding mineral movement and its effects on rural economies, fish and wildlife populations, and drinking water sources.
- Alternative Remediation and Reclamation Techniques: Evaluate methods like passive remediation and bioremediation for effective site cleanup and investigate novel reclamation techniques to stabilize soil and reduce toxicity at reclaimed mines.
Ensuring Safe, Abundant, and Affordable Food Supply
Access to a safe and sustainable supply of plant and animal products is essential for food security. While effective pest and disease management using nutrients, pesticides, and veterinary pharmaceuticals can enhance agricultural productivity, there are concerns about potential risks to fishing, hunting, human health, and food safety as these substances enter the environment. Additionally, food security is threatened by declines in pollinators (such as bees, butterflies, and bird), which are essential for crop reproduction, as well as the threat of avian influenza affecting poultry flocks. The USGS conducts research to assess the actual risks, enabling the agricultural community to make informed decisions on food production.
- Reuse of treated wastewater solids as fertilizers and soil amendments: Evaluating potential risks associated with the reuse of biosolids is essential to ensure it does not pose health threats to crops, livestock, and humans.
- Mitigate risks to food supplies and reduce foodborne illness: Understanding how the presence and movement of pathogens and contaminants interact in the environment allows for the development of targeted strategies to mitigate risks to food supplies and reduce foodborne illness.
- Understand Pollinator Decline: Examining landscape changes and chemical factors that may be contributing to the decline of pollinator populations in the United States, as these pollinators are essential for the reproduction of numerous crops.
- Understand and Reduce the spread of avian influenza in poultry: Analyzing the environmental exposure pathways through which avian influenza can spread is critical for developing effective prevention and control measures to potential outbreaks, ensuring the health of poultry populations and the economic stability of the poultry industry.
Secure Drinking Water: Monitoring Contaminants from Source to Tap
Approximately 60 million Americans in rural areas rely on unregulated onsite wells for drinking water, placing the responsibility for water quality on homeowners. In contrast, around 240 million Americans in urban and suburban areas obtain water from municipal facilities tested regularly for a limited number of chemicals. USGS offers valuable insights into the processes that transport contaminants from various sources through aquifers and distribution systems to homes, monitoring over 400 chemicals and pathogens at the tap.
Navigating the Risks of Harmful Algal Blooms and Algal Toxins
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can cause significant recreational and economic effects, disrupting activities such as fishing and swimming. In 2018, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated a HAB event bloom in Florida resulted in 5.5 million dollars in lost recreational opportunities and 2.3 million dollars in potential losses in housing sale prices (Boubacar and others, 2024). USGS provides essential scientific insights needed to understand:
- Drivers and Controlling Factors: Identifying the conditions that lead to HABs and the associated algal toxins.
- Exposure and Effects: Evaluating the impacts of algal toxins on aquatic organisms, wildlife, domesticated animals, and humans.
- Monitoring tools: Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN), enhance our ability to predict algal blooms, enabling better management of water resources and timely warnings for communities. For the State of Kansas, the economic value of CyAN is estimated to range between 565 thousand and 2.3 million dollars annually (Pindilli and Loftin, 2022).
PFAS in Our Ecosystems: Understanding the Broad Impacts and Path Forward
The USGS is actively addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment and its implications nationwide. To quickly answer questions, USGS scientists have integrated hydrological data (such as groundwater flow and surface water dynamics) and environmental data (soil properties and land use) to understand how PFAS moves through different environments. In addition to creating these models, A variety of approaches are used to understand PFAS occurrence, behavior, and impacts to the environment and human health.
- Improving Water Quality: Examines the occurrence of PFAS in surface water, groundwater, and drinking water supplies to assess their prevalence, concentrations, and movement in the environment throughout the U.S.
- Protecting Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife: Assessing bioaccumulation and sublethal effects in fish and wildlife is vital for understanding the implications of environmental PFAS exposure, thereby supporting the protection of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and biodiversity.
- Advancing Bioremediation Efforts: Gaining insights into PFAS biodegradation pathways and the potential application of bacterial cultures can significantly advance bioremediation efforts, helping to mitigate contamination and restore affected ecosystems.
America’s Hunting and Fishing Resources: Key to Economic Vitality and Ecological Balance
Fish and wildlife play a crucial role in the U.S. due to their cultural, economic, and nutritional significance. Hunting and fishing contribute substantial revenue from license and equipment sales, which helps support jobs and bolster local economies. These activities also attract tourism, benefiting local businesses and promoting community growth. Additionally, they offer sustainable food sources and recreational opportunities that improve mental health and well-being. The USGS is dedicated to protecting these vital resources through scientific research that addresses disease and exposure to contaminants, which can harm wildlife populations and pose risks to human food safety.
- Comprehensive Exposure Analysis: USGS employs a "source-to-receptor" approach to identify how contaminants and pathogens move through the environment, impacting both wildlife and human health.
- Protecting Wildlife and Human Activities: Identify and assess the effects of harmful substances and pathogens on fish and wildlife populations crucial for commercial, recreational, and subsistence activities. This information is used to develop effective, cost-efficient strategies to minimize those risks.
- Assessing Health Risks: Examine how these contaminants move through the environment and food web to determine when and where wildlife might be at greatest risk, as well as potential effects on human health.
- Protecting Important Resources: The research focuses on how contamination, like 6PPD-quinone, threatens fish and wildlife populations that are vital for activities such as fishing and hunting, which benefit local economies.
- Public Perception and Mitigation: USGS research on emerging and novel pathogens informs public understanding of zoonotic health risks that affect outdoor activities, hunting, and subsistence industries, which contribute significantly to state and federal revenues through licensing and permits. This data also helps managing agencies develop more effective mitigation measures and regulations for wildlife and livestock health.
Learn more about the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area programs we work with, as well as some of our research below!
Biological Threats and Invasive Species
Land Management Research Program
Species Managment Research Program
Collaborative Science Provides Understanding of Contaminants in Bottled Water-an Increasingly Common Alternate Drinking Water Source
Coproduced Science Linking Environmental and Public-Health Data to Evaluate Drinking Water Arsenic Exposure on Birth Outcomes
Wings of Change: The Environment's Influence on Bird Flu
USGS Research on 6PPD-quinone: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Decoding Harmful Algal Blooms: Unraveling the Mystery
Stay in touch with the Environmental Health Program
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Visit the Environmental Health Program Website
The Environmental Health Program integrates multi-disciplinary research to tackle the environmental challenges that impact the nation's natural resource assets. By providing comprehensive research and data, the program assesses both actual and perceived risks associated with environmental contaminants and pathogens while supporting variety of uses of our natural resources.
Sustainable Resource Management:
Promotes collaboration for the extraction and use of energy and mineral resources, ensuring environmental protection and economic vitality.
Public Health Protection:
Ensures safe drinking water and food supply by monitoring contaminants and addressing harmful algal blooms, reducing risks to human health and ecosystems.
Conservation of Natural Resources:
Supports the viability of hunting and fishing resources to maintain ecological balance and contribute to economic well-being.
Collaboration for Energy and Mineral Production
The oil and gas sector are crucial to global and national economies, contributing to job creation, revenue generation, and energy supply. In partnership with the oil and gas industry, the USGS is conducting science and research to support a balanced approach to economically and environmentally secure energy and mineral production.
Mineral mining is a crucial component of a healthy economy, with U.S. mines producing an estimated 106 billion dollars worth of nonfuel mineral commodities. To address the demand for critical minerals and rare earth metals, USGS is collaborating with the Department of Defense, private sector partners, and academic institutions to promote the environmentally sound extraction of rare earth elements and critical minerals essential for U.S. strategic national security goals.
- Maximize Recovery of Minerals and Metals: Characterize the mineralogy and geochemistry of ores and their associated by-products aims at maximizing recovery while minimizing the release of contaminants.
- Reuse of Production Byproducts: Develop strategies for the reuse of byproducts to decrease water use and minimize environmental effects, including cost-saving produced water treatment and reuse. Over 20 billion barrels of produced water are generated annually in the U.S.
- Characterization of Production Waste Materials: Determine the content of waste materials, like spent drilling fluids and biosolids, to support cost-effective alternatives to landfill disposal. Landfill disposal costs for these waste are approximately 60 dollars per ton. With 1.4 billion tons of waste generated annually, this practice can be estimated to be saving these industries from paying disposal costs in excess of 80 billion dollars per year.
- Protection of Natural Resources and Inform Regulation: Assess the quality of water bodies impacted by oil and gas extraction while understanding mineral movement and its effects on rural economies, fish and wildlife populations, and drinking water sources.
- Alternative Remediation and Reclamation Techniques: Evaluate methods like passive remediation and bioremediation for effective site cleanup and investigate novel reclamation techniques to stabilize soil and reduce toxicity at reclaimed mines.
Ensuring Safe, Abundant, and Affordable Food Supply
Access to a safe and sustainable supply of plant and animal products is essential for food security. While effective pest and disease management using nutrients, pesticides, and veterinary pharmaceuticals can enhance agricultural productivity, there are concerns about potential risks to fishing, hunting, human health, and food safety as these substances enter the environment. Additionally, food security is threatened by declines in pollinators (such as bees, butterflies, and bird), which are essential for crop reproduction, as well as the threat of avian influenza affecting poultry flocks. The USGS conducts research to assess the actual risks, enabling the agricultural community to make informed decisions on food production.
- Reuse of treated wastewater solids as fertilizers and soil amendments: Evaluating potential risks associated with the reuse of biosolids is essential to ensure it does not pose health threats to crops, livestock, and humans.
- Mitigate risks to food supplies and reduce foodborne illness: Understanding how the presence and movement of pathogens and contaminants interact in the environment allows for the development of targeted strategies to mitigate risks to food supplies and reduce foodborne illness.
- Understand Pollinator Decline: Examining landscape changes and chemical factors that may be contributing to the decline of pollinator populations in the United States, as these pollinators are essential for the reproduction of numerous crops.
- Understand and Reduce the spread of avian influenza in poultry: Analyzing the environmental exposure pathways through which avian influenza can spread is critical for developing effective prevention and control measures to potential outbreaks, ensuring the health of poultry populations and the economic stability of the poultry industry.
Secure Drinking Water: Monitoring Contaminants from Source to Tap
Approximately 60 million Americans in rural areas rely on unregulated onsite wells for drinking water, placing the responsibility for water quality on homeowners. In contrast, around 240 million Americans in urban and suburban areas obtain water from municipal facilities tested regularly for a limited number of chemicals. USGS offers valuable insights into the processes that transport contaminants from various sources through aquifers and distribution systems to homes, monitoring over 400 chemicals and pathogens at the tap.
Navigating the Risks of Harmful Algal Blooms and Algal Toxins
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can cause significant recreational and economic effects, disrupting activities such as fishing and swimming. In 2018, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated a HAB event bloom in Florida resulted in 5.5 million dollars in lost recreational opportunities and 2.3 million dollars in potential losses in housing sale prices (Boubacar and others, 2024). USGS provides essential scientific insights needed to understand:
- Drivers and Controlling Factors: Identifying the conditions that lead to HABs and the associated algal toxins.
- Exposure and Effects: Evaluating the impacts of algal toxins on aquatic organisms, wildlife, domesticated animals, and humans.
- Monitoring tools: Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN), enhance our ability to predict algal blooms, enabling better management of water resources and timely warnings for communities. For the State of Kansas, the economic value of CyAN is estimated to range between 565 thousand and 2.3 million dollars annually (Pindilli and Loftin, 2022).
PFAS in Our Ecosystems: Understanding the Broad Impacts and Path Forward
The USGS is actively addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment and its implications nationwide. To quickly answer questions, USGS scientists have integrated hydrological data (such as groundwater flow and surface water dynamics) and environmental data (soil properties and land use) to understand how PFAS moves through different environments. In addition to creating these models, A variety of approaches are used to understand PFAS occurrence, behavior, and impacts to the environment and human health.
- Improving Water Quality: Examines the occurrence of PFAS in surface water, groundwater, and drinking water supplies to assess their prevalence, concentrations, and movement in the environment throughout the U.S.
- Protecting Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife: Assessing bioaccumulation and sublethal effects in fish and wildlife is vital for understanding the implications of environmental PFAS exposure, thereby supporting the protection of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and biodiversity.
- Advancing Bioremediation Efforts: Gaining insights into PFAS biodegradation pathways and the potential application of bacterial cultures can significantly advance bioremediation efforts, helping to mitigate contamination and restore affected ecosystems.
America’s Hunting and Fishing Resources: Key to Economic Vitality and Ecological Balance
Fish and wildlife play a crucial role in the U.S. due to their cultural, economic, and nutritional significance. Hunting and fishing contribute substantial revenue from license and equipment sales, which helps support jobs and bolster local economies. These activities also attract tourism, benefiting local businesses and promoting community growth. Additionally, they offer sustainable food sources and recreational opportunities that improve mental health and well-being. The USGS is dedicated to protecting these vital resources through scientific research that addresses disease and exposure to contaminants, which can harm wildlife populations and pose risks to human food safety.
- Comprehensive Exposure Analysis: USGS employs a "source-to-receptor" approach to identify how contaminants and pathogens move through the environment, impacting both wildlife and human health.
- Protecting Wildlife and Human Activities: Identify and assess the effects of harmful substances and pathogens on fish and wildlife populations crucial for commercial, recreational, and subsistence activities. This information is used to develop effective, cost-efficient strategies to minimize those risks.
- Assessing Health Risks: Examine how these contaminants move through the environment and food web to determine when and where wildlife might be at greatest risk, as well as potential effects on human health.
- Protecting Important Resources: The research focuses on how contamination, like 6PPD-quinone, threatens fish and wildlife populations that are vital for activities such as fishing and hunting, which benefit local economies.
- Public Perception and Mitigation: USGS research on emerging and novel pathogens informs public understanding of zoonotic health risks that affect outdoor activities, hunting, and subsistence industries, which contribute significantly to state and federal revenues through licensing and permits. This data also helps managing agencies develop more effective mitigation measures and regulations for wildlife and livestock health.
Learn more about the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area programs we work with, as well as some of our research below!