Geology topics

Susan K. Langer

Publications and source records attributed to Susan K. Langer.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2015

Chemicals of emerging concern in water and bottom sediment in the Great Lakes Basin, 2012: collection methods, analytical methods, quality assurance, and study data

In synoptic surveys of surface-water quality across the United States, a large group of organic chemicals associated with agricultural, household, and industrial waste have been detected. These chemicals are referred to collectively as chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) and include prescription drugs and antibiotics, over-the-counter medications, reproductive hormones, personal-care products, detergent metabolites, and flame retardants. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a study to identify the presence of CECs in water and bottom-sediment samples collected during 2012 at 66 sites throughout the Great Lakes Basin. The 2012 effort is part of a long-term study that was initiated in 2010. The purposes of this report are to document the collection and analytical methods, provide the quality-assurance data and analyses, and provide the water and bottom-sediment data for this study of CECs in the Great Lakes Basin for 2012. A previous report documents data collected during 2010 and 2011. The methods used for chemical analyses were identical between the 2010–11 and 2012 studies, with the exception that a method to determine nontarget chemicals was used during 2010–11. The data from this study are published as a USGS Data Series Report to ensure adequate documentation of the original methods and provide a citable source for study data. This report contains no interpretations of the study data. The chemical data are as reported by the laboratory and have not been censored or adjusted unless otherwise noted. Field measurements were recorded and samples were collected in April and May and in September 2012, by U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel. Study sites included tributaries to the Great Lakes located near Duluth, Minnesota; King, Wisconsin; Green Bay, Wis.; Detroit, Michigan; Monroe, Mich.; Toledo, Ohio, and Rochester, New York. Water and bottom-sediment samples were analyzed at the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory in Denver, Colorado, for a broad suite of CECs. During this 2012 study, 140 environmental and 8 field duplicate samples of surface water and wastewater effluent, 1 field blank water sample, and 5 field spike water samples were collected or prepared. Water samples were analyzed at the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory using laboratory schedule 4433 for wastewater indicators, research method 8244 for pharmaceuticals, and laboratory schedule 4434 for steroid hormones, sterols, and bisphenol A. For wastewater indicators in unfiltered water, 61 of the 68 chemicals analyzed using laboratory schedule 4433 had detectable concentrations ranging from 0.002 to 64.4 micrograms per liter. Thirty-eight of the 48 chemicals analyzed using research method 8244 for pharmaceuticals in unfiltered water had detectable concentrations ranging from 0.002 to 3.32 micrograms per liter. Twelve of the 20 chemicals analyzed using laboratory schedule 4434 for steroid hormones, sterols, and bisphenol A in unfiltered water had detectable concentrations ranging from 0.43 to 120,000 nanograms per liter. During this study, 53 environmental samples, 4 field duplicate samples, and 8 field spike samples of bottom sediment and laboratory matrix-spike samples were analyzed for a wide variety of CECs at the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory using laboratory schedule 5433 for wastewater indicators; research method 6434 for steroid hormones, sterols, and bisphenol A; and research method 9008 for human-use pharmaceuticals and antidepressants. Forty of the 57 chemicals analyzed using laboratory schedule 5433 had detectable concentrations ranging from 1 to 49,000 micrograms per kilogram. Fourteen of the 20 chemicals analyzed using research method 6434 had detectable concentrations ranging from 0.04 to 24,940 nanograms per gram. Ten of the 20 chemicals analyzed using research method 9008 had detectable concentrations ranging from 0.59 to 197.5 micrograms per kilogram. Five of the 11 chemicals analyzed using research method 9008 had detectable concentrations ranging from 1.16 to 25.0 micrograms per kilogram.

Great Lakes Basin↗

USGS2014

Contaminants of emerging concern in ambient groundwater in urbanized areas of Minnesota, 2009-12

A study of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in ambient groundwater in urbanized areas of Minnesota was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. For this study, water samples were collected from November 2009 through June 2012 from 118 wells located in different land-use settings. The sampled wells primarily were screened in vulnerable sand and gravel aquifers (surficial and buried glacial aquifers) or vulnerable bedrock aquifers such as the Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer. Sampled well depths ranged from 9 to 285 feet below land surface. Water samples were collected by Minnesota Pollution Control Agency staff. The water samples were analyzed at U.S. Geological Survey laboratories for steroidal hormones, human-use pharmaceutical compounds, human- and animal-use antibiotics, and a broad suite of organic chemicals associated with wastewater. Reported detections were censored and not counted as detections in the data analyses if the chemical was detected in a laboratory or field blank at a similar concentration. During this study, 38 out of 127 CECs analyzed were detected among all water samples collected. Three of the detected CECs, however, were analyzed using two different analytical methods, so 35 distinct chemicals were detected. The number of detections of CECs in individual water samples ranged from 0 to 10. The three wells in proximity to landfills had the most CEC detections. One or more CECs were detected in a total of 43 samples (35 percent); no CECs were detected in 80 samples. Of the 127 CECs included for analysis in this study, 28 have established enforceable or non-enforceable health-based water-quality standards or benchmarks. Fourteen of the 35 chemicals detected in this study have established water-quality standards, whereas 21 of the chemicals detected have no established standard or benchmark. All detections in this study were less than established health-based water-quality standards, although p-cresol was detected at a concentration nearing a health-based water quality standard. Four of the six most frequently detected chemicals—azithromycin, diphenhydramine, tributyl phosphate, and lincomycin—have no health-based water-quality standards or benchmarks. The antibiotic sulfamethoxazole was the most frequently detected CEC, detected in a total of 14 of 123 samples (11.4 percent) by one or both analytical methods that include sulfamethoxazole as an analyte. Most (11 of 14, or 79 percent) of the detections of sulfamethoxazole were in samples from domestic wells or monitoring wells located in areas where septic systems or potentially leaking centralized sewers are prevalent. The chemical N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) was detected at the highest concentration of any CEC, at 7.9 micrograms per liter. Bisphenol A was detected second most frequently of all chemicals. DEET and Bisphenol A were detected most frequently in wells in proximity to closed landfills. Samples from bedrock wells, most of which are drinking water wells that are deeper than glacial wells, had a higher percentage of wells with CEC detections compared to samples from wells completed in glacial aquifers. The higher dissolved oxygen concentrations and lower specific conductance for the bedrock wells sampled indicate shorter duration flow paths from the land surface to these wells than for wells completed in glacial aquifers.

Minnesota↗

USGS2011

Endocrine active chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals of concern in surface water, wastewater-treatment plant effluent, and bed sediment, and biological characteristics in selected streams, Minnesota: Design, methods, and data, 2009

This report presents the study design, environmental data, and quality-assurance data for an integrated chemical and biological study of selected streams or lakes that receive wastewater-treatment plant effluent in Minnesota. This study was a cooperative effort of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Cloud State University, the University of St. Thomas, and the University of Colorado. The objective of the study was to identify distribution patterns of endocrine active chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other organic and inorganic chemicals of concern indicative of wastewater effluent, and to identify biological characteristics of estrogenicity and fish responses in the same streams. The U.S. Geological Survey collected and analyzed water, bed-sediment, and quality-assurance samples, and measured or recorded streamflow once at each sampling location from September through November 2009. Sampling locations included surface water and wastewater-treatment plant effluent. Twenty-five wastewater-treatment plants were selected to include continuous flow and periodic release facilities with differing processing steps (activated sludge or trickling filters) and plant design flows ranging from 0.002 to 10.9 cubic meters per second (0.04 to 251 million gallons per day) throughout Minnesota in varying land-use settings. Water samples were collected from the treated effluent of the 25 wastewater-treatment plants and at one point upstream from and one point downstream from wastewater-treatment plant effluent discharges. Bed-sediment samples also were collected at each of the stream or lake locations. Water samples were analyzed for major ions, nutrients, trace elements, pharmaceuticals, phytoestrogens and pharmaceuticals, alkylphenols and other neutral organic chemicals, carboxylic acids, and steroidal hormones. A subset (25 samples) of the bed-sediment samples were analyzed for carbon, wastewater-indicator chemicals, and steroidal hormones; the remaining samples were archived. Biological characteristics were determined by using an in-vitro bioassay to determine total estrogenicity in water samples and a caged fish study to determine characteristics of fish from experiments that exposed fish to wastewater effluent in 2009. St. Cloud State University deployed and processed caged fathead minnows at 13 stream sites during September 2009 for the caged fish study. Measured fish data included length, weight, body condition factor, and vitellogenin concentrations.

Minnesota↗

USGS2008

Potentiometric Surfaces and Changes in Groundwater Levels in Selected Bedrock Aquifers in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, March-August 2008 and 1988-2008

This report depicts potentiometric surfaces and groundwater- level changes in three aquifers that underlie the seven-county Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Approximately 350 groundwater levels were measured in wells from the three aquifers-the Prairie du Chien-Jordan, the Franconia-Ironton-Galesville, and the Mount Simon-Hinckley aquifers-in March and August of 2008. The report presents maps, associated data tables, and 22 geographic information system datasets. The maps presented in this report show the potentiometric surfaces in March and August of 2008 for all three aquifers, groundwater-level changes from March to August 2008 for each aquifer, and revised potentiometric-surface contours for the winter of 1988-89 for the Prairie du Chien-Jordan and the Mount Simon-Hinckley aquifers, and the estimated long-term (winter of 1988-89 to March 2008) groundwater-level changes for the Prairie du Chien-Jordan and Mount Simon-Hinckley aquifers. This report documents the methods used to construct the maps and provides a context for the period of the measurements. Although withdrawal demand is increasing in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area, particularly in the Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer, year-to-year changes in withdrawals can be substantial, and the relation between potentiometric surfaces in the major aquifers and year-to-year withdrawals is not well established. The estimated long-term (19-year) groundwater-level changes for the Prairie du Chien-Jordan and Mount Simon-Hinckley aquifers have not been large based on data and maps produced during this study, despite the large seasonal fluctuations shown by the March and August 2008 synoptic measurements.

Scientific Investigations Report↗