Aaron J. Porter
Aaron Porter is a hydrologist and Project Chief at the U.S. Geological Survey's Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center (VA-WV-WSC) in Richmond, VA.
Aaron has been involved in a wide variety of USGS water-resources investigations since 2014. His primary focus has been on utilizing streamflow and continuous water-quality monitoring to improve our understanding of nutrient and sediment dynamics in, and loadings from, small urban watersheds. Aaron is currently the project chief for the Hampton Roads Regional Stormwater Monitoring Program, Salem Source-Water Monitoring, the VA-WV-WSC demonstation gage at Mechumps Creek, and the project chief for the Fairfax County Water Resources Monitoring Program and the Hampton Roads Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program.
Science and Products
Lake Accotink Sedimentation Study
Lake Accotink is a 55-acre lake in Fairfax County which is highly valued by the local community. Much like a living organism, lakes go through many changes. Several factors affect their health and well-being such as sediment buildup. As the lake fills with sediment, it loses surface area and volume. Lake Accotink has been dredged in the past to remove excess sediment, but this process is costly...
USGS Publications Summarize Water-Quality Trends and Drivers in Urban Streams After 10 Years of Monitoring in Fairfax County, Virginia
Issue: Degraded water quality and ecology in urban streams has been widely documented, but explanations of changing conditions over time are often unavailable. A 15-year collaborative urban stream monitoring effort between the Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is ongoing and has begun to shed light on this complex issue. In a new USGS report by...
Source Water Monitoring on the Roanoke River in Salem, Virginia
The Roanoke River is the primary source of the City of Salem's drinking water. Threats to water quality in rivers like the Roanoke have increased in recent years, and water authorities as well as residents are concerned about preventing source water contamination. Realtime water quality monitoring is a valuable tool in alerting water authorities such as Salem Water when there are anomalous...
Fairfax County Water Resources Monitoring Network
In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested into the implementation of Best Management Practices in Fairfax County, Virginia, with the goal of improving water quality. Research has demonstrated that best management practices are effective at smaller scales, but less information is available to document the effectiveness of these best management practices at the watershed...
Hampton Roads Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey partnered with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) in cooperation with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission to implement a water-quality monitoring program in six major cities across the Hampton Roads region. This long-term monitoring program consists of a network of 12 water-quality monitoring stations, 2 per jurisdiction, across the cities...
Science and Products
Lake Accotink Sedimentation Study
Lake Accotink is a 55-acre lake in Fairfax County which is highly valued by the local community. Much like a living organism, lakes go through many changes. Several factors affect their health and well-being such as sediment buildup. As the lake fills with sediment, it loses surface area and volume. Lake Accotink has been dredged in the past to remove excess sediment, but this process is costly...
USGS Publications Summarize Water-Quality Trends and Drivers in Urban Streams After 10 Years of Monitoring in Fairfax County, Virginia
Issue: Degraded water quality and ecology in urban streams has been widely documented, but explanations of changing conditions over time are often unavailable. A 15-year collaborative urban stream monitoring effort between the Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is ongoing and has begun to shed light on this complex issue. In a new USGS report by...
Source Water Monitoring on the Roanoke River in Salem, Virginia
The Roanoke River is the primary source of the City of Salem's drinking water. Threats to water quality in rivers like the Roanoke have increased in recent years, and water authorities as well as residents are concerned about preventing source water contamination. Realtime water quality monitoring is a valuable tool in alerting water authorities such as Salem Water when there are anomalous...
Fairfax County Water Resources Monitoring Network
In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested into the implementation of Best Management Practices in Fairfax County, Virginia, with the goal of improving water quality. Research has demonstrated that best management practices are effective at smaller scales, but less information is available to document the effectiveness of these best management practices at the watershed...
Hampton Roads Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey partnered with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) in cooperation with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission to implement a water-quality monitoring program in six major cities across the Hampton Roads region. This long-term monitoring program consists of a network of 12 water-quality monitoring stations, 2 per jurisdiction, across the cities...