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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

Toxic substances in surface waters and sediments: A study to assess the effects of arsenic-contaminated alluvial sediment in Whitewood Creek, South Dakota

Field measurements and bioassay experiments were done to investigate the effects of arsenic and phosphorus interactions on sorption of these solutes by the benthic flora (periphyton and submerged macrophytes) in Whitewood Creek, a stream in western South Dakota. Short-term (24-hour) sorption experiments were used to determine arsenic transport characteristics for algae (first-order rate constants
Authors
James S. Kuwabara, Christopher C. Fuller

Aquifer susceptibility in Virginia, 1998-2000

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Health, sampled water from 171 wells and springs across the Commonwealth of Virginia between 1998 and 2000 as part of the Virginia Aquifer Susceptibility study. Most of the sites sampled are public water supplies that are part of the comprehensive Source Water Assessment Program for the Commonwealth. The fundamental
Authors
David L. Nelms, George E. Harlow, Niel Plummer, Eurybiades Busenberg

Methodology for estimating times of remediation associated with monitored natural attenuation

Natural attenuation processes combine to disperse, immobilize, and biologically transform anthropogenic contaminants, such as petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated ethenes, in ground-water systems. The time required for these processes to lower contaminant concentrations to levels protective of human health and the environment, however, varies widely between different hydrologic systems, differen
Authors
Francis H. Chapelle, Mark A. Widdowson, J. Steven Brauner, Eduardo Mendez, Clifton C. Casey

Water quality of the Boulder Creek watershed, Colorado

No abstract available.
Authors
Philip L. Verplanck, Sheila F. Murphy, Larry Billingsley Barber

Spatial variability of sedimentary interbed properties near the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Idaho

The subsurface at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is complex, comprised primarily of thick, fractured basalt flows interbedded with thinner sedimentary intervals. The unsaturated zone can be as thick as 200 m in the southwestern part of the INEEL. The Vadose Zone Research Park (VZRP), located approximately 10 km southwest of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engi
Authors
Kari A. Winfield

Estimating the susceptibility of surface water in Texas to nonpoint-source contamination by use of logistic regression modeling

In the State of Texas, surface water (streams, canals, and reservoirs) and ground water are used as sources of public water supply. Surface-water sources of public water supply are susceptible to contamination from point and nonpoint sources. To help protect sources of drinking water and to aid water managers in designing protective yet cost-effective and risk-mitigated monitoring strategies, the
Authors
William A. Battaglin, Randy L. Ulery, Thomas Winterstein, Toby Welborn

Herbicides and transformation products in surface waters of the Midwestern United States

Most herbicides applied to crops are adsorbed by plants or transformed (degraded) in the soil, but small fractions are lost from fields and either move to streams in overland runoff, near surface flow, or subsurface drains, or they infiltrate slowly to ground water. Herbicide transformation products (TPs) can be more or less mobile and more or less toxic in the environment than their source herbic
Authors
W.A. Battaglin, E.M. Thurman, S. J. Kalkhoff, S. D. Porter

Herbicides and herbicide degradation products in upper midwest agricultural streams during august base-flow conditions

Herbicide concentrations in streams of the U.S. Midwest have been shown to decrease through the growing season due to a variety of chemical and physical factors. The occurrence of herbicide degradation products at the end of the growing season is not well known. This study was conducted to document the occurrence of commonly used herbicides and their degradation products in Illinois, Iowa, and Min
Authors
S. J. Kalkhoff, K. E. Lee, S. D. Porter, P. J. Terrio, E.M. Thurman

Oxygen isotopes in nitrate: New reference materials for 18O:17O:16O measurements and observations on nitrate-water equilibration

Despite a rapidly growing literature on analytical methods and field applications of O isotope-ratio measurements of NO3− in environmental studies, there is evidence that the reported data may not be comparable because reference materials with widely varying δ18O values have not been readily available. To address this problem, we prepared large quantities of two nitrate salts with contrasting O is
Authors
J.K. Böhlke, S.J. Mroczkowski, T. B. Coplen

The role of microbial reductive dechlorination of TCE at a phytoremediation site

In April 1996, a phytoremediation field demonstration site at the Naval Air Station, Fort Worth, Texas, was developed to remediate shallow oxic ground water (<3.7 m deep) contaminated with chlorinated ethenes. Microbial populations were sampled in February and June 1998. The populations under the newly planted cottonwood trees had not yet matured to an anaerobic community that could dechlorinate t
Authors
E.M. Godsy, E. Warren, V.V. Paganelli

Microbial transformation of elements: The case of arsenic and selenium

Microbial activity is responsible for the transformation of at least one third of the elements in the periodic table. These transformations are the result of assimilatory, dissimilatory, or detoxification processes and form the cornerstones of many biogeochemical cycles. Arsenic and selenium are two elements whose roles in microbial ecology have only recently been recognized. Known as "essential t
Authors
J. Stolz, P. Basu, R. Oremland