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Publications

Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).

Filter Total Items: 3746

River chemistry as a monitor of Yosemite Park mountain hydroclimates

High-frequency, high-altitude measurements of water chemistry provide insights into processes relating to the hydrology, climate, and geochemistry of mountain catchments. When such observations are combined with stream stage, temperature, snow, weather, and other surface hydroclimate measurements, they are particularly useful in allowing connections between climate, river discharge, river chemistr
Authors
David Peterson, Richard Smith, Stephen Hager, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Michael Dettinger, King Huber

Occurrence of selected pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical compounds, and stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios, in a riverbank filtration study, Platte River, Nebraska, 2001 to 2003, Volume 1

Although studied extensively in recent years in Europe, the occurrence of endocrine disrupters and other organic wastewater compounds in the environment in the United States is not well documented. To better understand the efficiency of riverbank filtration with respect to endocrine disrupting compounds and to evaluate the use of riverbank filtration as an effective means of drinking-water treatme
Authors
J. R. Vogel, Ingrid M. Verstraeten, T. B. Coplen, E. T. Furlong, M. T. Meyer, L. B. Barber

Questa baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality investigation. 10. Geologic influences on ground and surface waters in the lower Red River watershed, New Mexico

This report is one in a series that presents results of an interdisciplinary U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study of ground-water quality in the lower Red River watershed prior to open-pit and underground molybdenite mining at Molycorp’s Questa mine. The stretch of the Red River watershed that extends from just upstream of the town of Red River, N. Mex., to just above the town of Questa includes se
Authors
Steve Ludington, Geoff Plumlee, Jonathan S. Caine, Dana Bove, JoAnn Holloway, Eric Livo

Quantification and simulation of metal loading to the Upper Animas River, Eureka to Silverton, San Juan County, Colorado, September 1997 and August 1998

Drainage from abandoned and inactive mines and from naturally mineralized areas in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado contributes metals to the upper Animas River near Silverton, Colorado. Tracer-injection studies and associated synoptic sampling were performed along two reaches of the upper Animas River to develop detailed profiles of stream discharge and to locate and quantify sources o
Authors
Suzanne S. Paschke, Briant A. Kimball, Robert L. Runkel

Questa baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality investigation. 5. Well installation, water-level data, and surface- and ground-water geochemistry in the Straight Creek drainage basin, Red River Valley, New Mexico, 2001-03

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Mexico Environment Department, is investigating the pre-mining ground-water chemistry at the Molycorp molybdenum mine in the Red River Valley, northern New Mexico. The primary approach is to determine the processes controlling ground-water chemistry at an unmined, off-site, proximal analog. The Straight Creek drainage basin, chosen for this p
Authors
Cheryl A. Naus, R. Blaine McCleskey, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Lisa C. Donohoe, Andrew G. Hunt, Frederick L. Paillet, Roger H. Morin, Philip L. Verplanck

Evaluation of unsaturated-zone solute-transport models for studies of agricultural chemicals

Seven unsaturated-zone solute-transport models were tested with two data sets to select models for use by the Agricultural Chemical Team of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. The data sets were from a bromide tracer test near Merced, California, and an atrazine study in the White River Basin, Indiana. In this study the models are designated either as complex or
Authors
Bernard T. Nolan, E. Randall Bayless, Christopher T. Green, Sheena Garg, Frank D. Voss, David C. Lampe, Jack E. Barbash, Paul D. Capel, Barbara A. Bekins

Summary of significant results from studies of triazine herbicides and their degradation products in surface water, ground water, and precipitation in the midwestern United States during the 1990s

Nonpoint-source contamination of water resources from triazine herbicides has been a major water-quality issue during the 1990s in the United States. To address this issue, studies of surface water, ground water, and precipitation have been carried out by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Midwestern United States. Reconnaissance studies of 147 streams were conducted to determine the geographic and
Authors
Elisabeth A. Scribner, E.M. Thurman, Donald A. Goolsby, Michael T. Meyer, William A. Battaglin, Dana W. Kolpin

Questa baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality investigation. 14. Interpretation of ground-water geochemistry in catchments other than the Straight Creek catchment, Red River Valley, Taos County, New Mexico, 2002-2003

 The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Mexico Environment Department, is investigating the pre-mining ground-water chemistry at the Molycorp molybdenum mine in the Red River Valley, New Mexico. The primary approach is to determine the processes controlling ground-water chemistry at an unmined, off-site but proximal analog. The Straight Creek catchment, chosen for this purpose, co
Authors
D. Kirk Nordstrom, R. Blaine McCleskey, Andrew G. Hunt, Cheryl A. Naus

Geobacter bemidjiensis sp. nov. and Geobacter psychrophilus sp. nov., two novel Fe(III)-reducing subsurface isolates

Fe(III)-reducing isolates were recovered from two aquifers in which Fe(III) reduction is known to be important. Strain BemT was enriched from subsurface sediments collected in Bemidji, MN, USA, near a site where Fe(III) reduction is important in aromatic hydrocarbon degradation. Strains P11, P35T and P39 were isolated from the groundwater of an aquifer in Plymouth, MA, USA, in which Fe(III) reduct
Authors
Kelly P. Nevin, Dawn E. Holmes, Trevor L. Woodard, Erich S. Hinlein, David W. Ostendorf, Derek R. Lovely

Geochemistry of Red Mountain Creek, Colorado, under low-flow conditions, August 2002

Red Mountain Creek, an acid mine drainage stream in southwestern Colorado, was the subject of a synoptic study conducted in August 2002. During the synoptic study, a solution containing lithium chloride was injected continuously to allow for the calculation of streamflow using the tracer-dilution method. Synoptic water-quality samples were collected from 48 stream sites and 29 inflow locations alo
Authors
Robert L. Runkel, Briant A. Kimball, Katherine Walton-Day, Philip L. Verplanck

Comparison of diffusion- and pumped-sampling methods to monitor volatile organic compounds in ground water, Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, July 1999–December 2002

To evaluate diffusion sampling as an alternative method to monitor volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations in ground water, concentrations in samples collected by traditional pumped-sampling methods were compared to concentrations in samples collected by diffusion-sampling methods for 89 monitoring wells at or near the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod. Samples were analyzed for
Authors
Stacey A. Archfield, Denis R. LeBlanc