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At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources
USGS2013

Soil criteria to protect terrestrial wildlife and open-range livestock from metal toxicity at mining sites

Thousands of hard rock mines exist in the western USA and in other parts of the world as a result of historic and current gold, silver, lead, and mercury mining. Many of these sites in the USA are on public lands. Typical mine waste associated with these sites are tailings and waste rock dumps that may be used by wildlife and open-range livestock. This report provides wildlife screening criteria levels for metals in soil and mine waste to evaluate risk and to determine the need for site-specific risk assessment, remediation, or a change in management practices. The screening levels are calculated from toxicity reference values based on maximum tolerable levels of metals in feed, on soil and plant ingestion rates, and on soil to plant uptake factors for a variety of receptors. The metals chosen for this report are common toxic metals found at mining sites: arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, and zinc. The resulting soil screening values are well above those developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The difference in values was mainly a result of using toxicity reference values that were more specific to the receptors addressed rather than the most sensitive receptor.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment↗
USGS1993

Erosion response of a disturbed sagebrush steppe hillslope

Land management activities that disrupt surface vegetation cover pose a serious threat to the long-term stability of buried-waste sites located within the semiarid sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) steppe region of the northwestern USA. In this study, we evaluated the erosion response of a sagebrush hillslope subjected to three vegetation cover treatments: natural (undisturbed), bare (plant canopy and litter cover removed), and clipped (canopy removed). A rotating boom rainfall simulator was used to apply rain at 60 or 120 mm/h intensities to runoff plots (3.0 m by 10.7 m) with dry, wet, and very wet antecedent moisture conditions, and during two late and one early summer seasons. Supplemental overland flow was added at the upper end of each plot to simulate increased slope length during very wet runs. Maximum soil loss rates on the natural, clipped, and bare treatments were, respectively, 1, 5, and 216 mg/m 2 per s during the 60 mm/h rainfall intensity, and 13, 79, and 1473 mg/m 2 per s during the 120 mm/h rainfall intensity. Cumulative soil loss was typically 100 to 1000 times greater on the bare treatment than on the natural or clipped treatments. Increases in simulated slope length produced a near linear increase in soil loss from the bare treatment plots (about 0.02 g/m 2 per s soil loss per m of slope length) until 30 m, after which the effect of slope length declined. Surface crust development and mound-intermound microtopography played important roles in governing soil detachment and transport on the hillslope. Despite high rainfall intensity and surface runoff rates, rill erosion was negligible on both the undisturbed and disturbed portions of the hillslope.

Journal of Environmental Quality↗
USGS2003

Surveillance strategies for detecting Chronic Wasting Disease in free-ranging deer and elk: Results of a CWD surveillance workshop

Executive Summary Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal brain disease of North American deer and elk, has recently emerged as an important wildlife management issue. Interest and concern over the spread of this disease and its potential impact on free-ranging cervid populations has increased with discovery of the disease in numerous states and provinces. Current studies suggest that CWD may adversely affect of these highly visible, socially desirable, and economically valuable species. Despite the lack of evidence that CWD affects humans or livestock, a significant concern has been the perceived risk to humans and livestock. Uncertainty about whether CWD poses a health risk to hunters and their families who consume venison has resulted in testing of free-ranging cervids for CWD. In response to many of these concerns, wildlife management agencies across the nation have undertaken surveillance programs to detect CWD in their cervid populations. The nation-wide costs for an extensive CWD surveillance program have been estimated at several million dollars. This document provides guidance on the development and conduct of scientifically sound surveillance programs to detect CWD in free-ranging deer and elk populations. These guidelines will not apply equally to all jurisdictions. In many cases local circumstances, resources, area(s) of concern, disease risk, animal and landscape ecology, political, social, and many other factors will influence the objectives, design, and conduct of CWD surveillance programs. Part I of this report discusses the importance of management goals, strategies, and disease risks in developing a surveillance program. Part II describes surveillance methods, steps in designing a sampling strategy to detect CWD, alternative collection methods, and statistical considerations. Part III describes costs (personnel, time, and money) associated with implementation of these plans that will influence program design. Part IV outlines research that is needed to further development of CWD surveillance methods. Unfortunately in dealing with CWD, many important biological facts are still unknown and further research will be required to answer these questions. In most situations surveillance strategies suggested may require several years to complete, will require careful consideration of management objectives, and extensive operational planning in order to be meaningful and to be scientifically based.

Book↗
USGS1967

Are we running out of water?

Water supplies are not running out, but time is getting short to stem waste of water and destructive exploitation of the environment before harm is done that may be irreparable. Most of the world's water is oceanic brine. Of the waters on the land, most is frozen in Antarctica and Greenland. Only a small part of continental water is available for use and management. The discharge of rivers to the sea is a close measure of the availability of liquid water, but ground-water reservoirs have important functions as inexpensive equalizers of water supply. Soil moisture is a major factor in the water economy, and its function usually is overlooked in assessments of water use and future water demand. Despite outcries of water shortage, the principal use of water in advanced countries is as a medium for waste disposal. In reality, despite regional maldistribution of water, United States supplies are adequate, given rational management. Also, contrary to common belief, water pollution is primarily a problem of economics, not of health. A paramount problem in most parts of the world is the shortage of water development and management facilities, not a shortage of water. The International Hydrological Decade is a program to awaken people everywhere to the crucial importance of water in man's future and to promote rational approach to water problems.

Circular↗
USGS2009

Method for Estimating Water Withdrawals for Livestock in the United States, 2005

Livestock water use includes ground water and surface water associated with livestock watering, feedlots, dairy operations, and other on-farm needs. The water may be used for drinking, cooling, sanitation, waste disposal, and other needs related to the animals. Estimates of water withdrawals for livestock are needed for water planning and management. This report documents a method used to estimate withdrawals of fresh ground water and surface water for livestock in 2005 for each county and county equivalent in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Categories of livestock included dairy cattle, beef and other cattle, hogs and pigs, laying hens, broilers and other chickens, turkeys, sheep and lambs, all goats, and horses (including ponies, mules, burros, and donkeys). Use of the method described in this report could result in more consistent water-withdrawal estimates for livestock that can be used by water managers and planners to determine water needs and trends across the United States. Water withdrawals for livestock in 2005 were estimated by using water-use coefficients, in gallons per head per day for each animal type, and livestock-population data. Coefficients for various livestock for most States were obtained from U.S. Geological Survey water-use program personnel or U.S. Geological Survey water-use publications. When no coefficient was available for an animal type in a State, the median value of reported coefficients for that animal was used. Livestock-population data were provided by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. County estimates were further divided into ground-water and surface-water withdrawals for each county and county equivalent. County totals from 2005 were compared to county totals from 1995 and 2000. Large deviations from 1995 or 2000 livestock withdrawal estimates were investigated and generally were due to comparison with reported withdrawals, differences in estimation techniques, differences in livestock coefficients, or use of livestock-population data from different sources. The results of this study were distributed to U.S. Geological Survey water-use program personnel in each State during 2007. Water-use program personnel are required to submit estimated withdrawals for all categories of use in their States to the National Water-Use Information Program for inclusion in a national report describing water use in the United States during 2005. Water-use program personnel had the option of submitting these estimates, a modified version of these estimates, or their own set of estimates or reported data. Estimated withdrawals resulting from the method described in this report are not presented herein to avoid potential inconsistencies with estimated withdrawals for livestock that will be presented in the national report, as different methods used by water-use personnel may result in different withdrawal estimates. Estimated withdrawals also are not presented to avoid potential disclosure of data for individual livestock operations.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS2020

Source-tracking approach for detecting and identifying sources of wastewater in waters of Hawaiʻi

Elevated concentrations of nutrients and the fecal-indicator bacteria enterococci are occasionally detected in Hawai‘i’s surface waters by the State of Hawai‘i Department of Health Clean Water Branch. Management efforts to improve the water quality of surface waters are complicated by the fact that nutrients and enterococci can originate from several sources, including wastewater, animal waste, and soils. Wastewater often is the suspected source of nutrients and bacteria, but the source may not always be unequivocally identifiable from the Clean Water Branch’s routine monitoring efforts. This report—prepared in cooperation with the State of Hawai‘i Department of Health Clean Water Branch—describes a source-tracking approach for Hawai‘i that is meant to help investigators determine whether wastewater is present in the environment and where wastewater might be originating, if it is present. Wastewater sources include domestic wastewater entering the environment through on-site disposal systems and municipal wastewater entering the environment through leaky sewer systems or injection-well disposal systems. The source-tracking approach relies on the use of field-measured water properties and multiple chemical tracers of wastewater, including optical brighteners, nutrients, hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in water, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes in nitrate, organic waste compounds, and human-use pharmaceutical compounds. The source-tracking approach proposes the following sequence of steps for investigators to execute: (1) gather background information on the study area, (2) conduct trolling-instrument surveys of physical properties of surface water and identify groundwater-discharge locations, (3) collect water samples at reconnaissance sites and analyze the samples for detergent optical brighteners and specific conductance, (4) collect water samples at targeted sites and have appropriate laboratories analyze the samples for chemical tracers of wastewater, and (5) evaluate analytical results for chemical tracers of wastewater and conclude whether wastewater is present in sampled waters. The conclusions can guide management and stakeholder efforts to protect and improve the quality of Hawai‘i’s water resources.

Hawaii↗
USGS1985

Environmental systems and management activities on the Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Florida: results of a modeling workshop

In the early 1960's, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began purchasing 140,000 acres on Merritt Island, Florida, in order to develop a center for space exploration. Most of this land was acquired to provide a safety and security buffer around NASA facilities. NASA, as the managing agency for the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), is responsible for preventing or controlling environmental pollution from the Federal facilities and activities at the Space Center and is committed to use all practicable means to protect and enhance the quality of the surrounding environment. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1963 when management authority for undeveloped lands at KSC was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition to manage for 11 Federally-listed threatened and endangered species and other resident and migratory fish and wildlife populations, the Refuge has comanagement responsibility for 19,000 acres of mosquito control impoundments and 2,500 acres of citrus groves. The Canaveral National Seashore was developed in 1975 when management of a portion of the coastal lands was transferred from NASA to the National Park Service. This multiagency jurisdiction on Merritt Island has resulted in a complex management environment. The modeling workshop described in this report was conducted May 21-25, 1984, at the Kennedy Space Center to: (1) enhance communication among the agencies with management responsibilities on Merritt Island; (2) integrate available information concerning the development, management, and ecology of Merritt Island; and (3) identify key research and monitoring needs associated with the management and use of the island's resources. The workshop was structured around the formulation of a model that would simulate primary management and use activities on Merritt Island and their effects on upland, impoundment, and estuarine vegetation and associated wildlife. The simulation model is composed of four connected submodels. The Uplands submodel calculates changes in acres and structural components of vegetation communities resulting from succession, fire, facilities development, and shuttle launch depositions, as well as the quantity and quality of surface runoff and aquifer input to an impoundment and an estuary. The Impoundment submodel next determines water quality and quantity and changes in vegetation resulting from water level manipulation and prescribed burning. The Estuary submodel than determines water quality parameters and acres of seagrass beds. Finally, the Wildlife submodel calculates habitat suitability indices for key species of interest, based on vegetation conditions in the uplands and impoundments and on several hydrologic parameters. The model represents a hypothetical management unit with 2,500 acres of uplands, a 600-acre impoundment, and a 1,500-acre section of estuary. Two management scenarios were run to analyze model behavior. The scenarios differ in the frequency of shuttle launches and prescribed burning, the extent of facilities development, the amount of land disposed waste material applied, and the nature and timing of impoundment water level control. Early in a model development project, the process of building the model is usually of greater benefit than the model itself. The model building process stimulates interaction among agencies, assists in integrating existing information, and helps identify research needs. These benefits usually accrue even in the absence of real predictive power in the resulting model. Open communication occurs among the Federal, State, and local agencies involved with activities on Merritt Island and the agencies have a cooperative working relationship. The workshop provided an opportunity for all of these agencies to meet at one time and have focused discussions on the key environmental and multiagency resource management issues. The workshop framework helped to integrate information and assumptions from a number of disciplines and agencies. This integration occurred in the computer simulation model and among workshop participants as submodel linkages were developed and scenario results discussed. A number of research needs were identified at the workshop during the model building and testing exercises and associated discussions. These needs were based on the informed judgement of researchers and managers familiar with Merritt Island or similar areas, rather than on a comprehensive literature review of sensitivity analysis of the preliminary model developed at the workshop. Some of the needs can be addressed by interpreting the results of completed studies from similar geographic areas as they relate to Merritt Island, while other will require additional research studies on Merritt Island. Major research needs associated with the Upland submodel include behavior of the near-surface aquifer, factors limiting slash pine regeneration, frequency and effects of natural fire on various cover types, cumulative effects of shuttle launches, and fate in upland soils of nitrogen and phosphorous from land applied waste material. Key Impoundment submodel needs include documentation of vegetation changes in response to altered water depth, salinity, and nutrient concentrations and better specification of the functional characteristics of impoundments as chemical filters. Important information gaps identified in the Estuary submodel include a more complete analysis of factors contributing to phytoplankton abundance, evaluation of sources of turbidity other than phytoplankton, and identification and quantification of factors limiting seagrass distribution. Primary research needs associated with the Wildlife submodel include a survey of breeding habitat, production data, and harvest data for mottled ducks; data on the emigration and immigration of juvenile mullet (and other transient fish) in the impoundment; the contribution of various seagrasses to habitat requirements of sea trout; and the effects of dissolved oxygen on survival of juvenile sea trout. Ideally, the modeling workshop process is iterative in nature. Periods between workshops are used for research, data collection, and model refinement. Each workshop integrates information collected since the last workshop and produces a more credible model that is more useful in evaluating management alternatives. Participants felt that continued application of this process would help provide ongoing integration and communication among agencies and would allow each agency's planning and management activities to be viewed within the context of an overall assessment.

Report↗
USGS2007

The effects of acidic mine drainage from historical mines in the Animas River watershed, San Juan County, Colorado—What is being done and what can be done to improve water quality?

Historical production of metals in the western United States has left a legacy of acidic drainage and toxic metals in many mountain watersheds that are a potential threat to human and ecosystem health. Studies of the effects of historical mining on surface water chemistry and riparian habitat in the Animas River watershed have shown that cost-effective remediation of mine sites must be carefully planned. of the more than 5400 mine, mill, and prospect sites in the watershed, ∼80 sites account for more than 90% of the metal loads to the surface drainages. Much of the low pH water and some of the metal loads are the result of weathering of hydrothermally altered rock that has not been disturbed by historical mining. Some stream reaches in areas underlain by hydrothermally altered rock contained no aquatic life prior to mining. Scientific studies of the processes and metal-release pathways are necessary to develop effective remediation strategies, particularly in watersheds where there is little land available to build mine-waste repositories. Characterization of mine waste, development of runoff profiles, and evaluation of ground-water pathways all require rigorous study and are expensive upfront costs that land managers find difficult to justify. Tracer studies of water quality provide a detailed spatial analysis of processes affecting surface- and ground-water chemistry. Reactive transport models were used in conjunction with the best state-of-the-art engineering solutions to make informed and cost-effective remediation decisions. Remediation of 23% of the high-priority sites identified in the watershed has resulted in steady improvement in water quality. More than $12 million, most contributed by private entities, has been spent on remediation in the Animas River watershed. The recovery curve for aquatic life in the Animas River system will require further documentation and long-term monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of remediation projects implemented.

Colorado, Montana↗
USGS2014

Barcodes are a useful tool for labeling and tracking ecological samples

Barcodes are used to label and track just about everything these days. Look around your office, in your medicine cabinet, at the package you just received in the mail, or on the shelves of any shop in town, and you will immediately grasp the ubiquity of their use. Interestingly, railroads and supermarkets were the early pioneers of barcode development: the former needing a way to track railway car location and ownership on a national scale, the latter needing a way to track a diverse array of products and to decrease checkout times (Nelson 1997). Barcodes first came to use in the sciences via the field of medicine, and the medical literature contains hundreds of publications describing how this technology has reduced errors in patient specimen identification and handling, where error mitigation is crucial. In short, barcodes have been adopted by many industries, and in many fields they are now synonymous with asset tracking. In spite of their potential to efficiently organize “assets” (i.e., samples) and minimize human error, the use of barcodes has yet to gain widespread application in ecology. In an age where students take notes on laptops instead of paper, and where “text messaging” involves a smartphone rather than a ball‐point pen, why do otherwise tech‐savvy ecologists persist in hand‐labeling samples? Why do we repeatedly transcribe long and unique identifiers at each step in the process of sample analysis, thereby wasting time and creating opportunities for transcription errors and data loss? Why are most sample storage areas only successfully navigable by the lab manager who personally shelved the samples? In the case of our large ecology lab—and, we suspect, in many others as well—the answer to these questions was perpetually, “bar‐coding won't be worth the trouble.” Recently, however, we realized this was no longer a sufficient answer when we started a new research project that involved collecting an additional thousands of samples each year; we decided to embrace the tangible benefits of an electronic labeling system, and implemented barcoding in our lab. To be clear, the use of barcoding in ecology is not completely novel, and there have been early adopters of this technology. For example, the Cedar Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site has been using barcodes since at least the mid‐1990s to track the large number of samples collected in their long‐term experimental grasslands (T. A. Kennedy, personal observation ). Overall, however, Cedar Creek is an outlier: in informal e‐mail surveys of LTER sites, only two of eight respondents used barcodes for sample identification or tracking, and even then their use was generally limited to certain samples or certain stages of sample analysis. Our objective in this article is to use our lab as a case study to highlight the potential of barcodes to simplify numerous aspects of sample collection and processing.

Arizona↗
USGS2009

Synthesis of ground and remote sensing data for monitoring ecosystem functions in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico

The delta of the Colorado River in Mexico supports a rich mix of estuarine, wetland and riparian ecosystems that provide habitat for over 350 species of birds as well as fish, marine mammals, and other wildlife. An important part of the delta ecosystem is the riparian corridor, which is supported by agricultural return flows and waste spills of water originating in the U.S. and Mexico. These flows may be curtailed in the future due to climate change and changing land use practices (out-of-basin water transfers, increased agricultural efficiency, and more optimal management of dams) in the U.S. and Mexico, and resource managers need to monitor the effects of their water management practices on these ecosystems. We developed ground-validated, remote sensing methods to monitor the vegetation status, habitat value, and water use of wetland and riparian ecosystems using multi-temporal, multi-resolution images. The integrated methodology allowed us to project species composition, leaf area index, fractional cover, habitat value, and evapotranspiration over seasons and years throughout the delta, in response to variable water flows from the U.S. to Mexico. Waste spills of water from the U.S. have regenerated native cottonwood and willow trees in the riparian corridor and created backwater and marsh areas that support birds and other wildlife. However, the main source of water supporting the riparian vegetation is the regional aquifer recharged by underflow from U.S. and Mexico irrigation districts. Native trees have a short half-life in the riparian zone due to human-set fires and harvesting for timber. Active management, monitoring, and restoration programs are needed to maintain the habitat value of this ecosystem for the future.

Colorado River Delta↗
USGS1994

Horvitz-Thompson survey sample methods for estimating large-scale animal abundance

Large-scale surveys to estimate animal abundance can be useful for monitoring population status and trends, for measuring responses to management or environmental alterations, and for testing ecological hypotheses about abundance. However, large-scale surveys may be expensive and logistically complex. To ensure resources are not wasted on unattainable targets, the goals and uses of each survey should be specified carefully and alternative methods for addressing these objectives always should be considered. During survey design, the impoflance of each survey error component (spatial design, propofiion of detected animals, precision in detection) should be considered carefully to produce a complete statistically based survey. Failure to address these three survey components may produce population estimates that are inaccurate (biased low), have unrealistic precision (too precise) and do not satisfactorily meet the survey objectives. Optimum survey design requires trade-offs in these sources of error relative to the costs of sampling plots and detecting animals on plots, considerations that are specific to the spatial logistics and survey methods. The Horvitz-Thompson estimators provide a comprehensive framework for considering all three survey components during the design and analysis of large-scale wildlife surveys. Problems of spatial and temporal (especially survey to survey) heterogeneity in detection probabilities have received little consideration, but failure to account for heterogeneity produces biased population estimates. The goal of producing unbiased population estimates is in conflict with the increased variation from heterogeneous detection in the population estimate. One solution to this conflict is to use an MSE-based approach to achieve a balance between bias reduction and increased variation. Further research is needed to develop methods that address spatial heterogeneity in detection, evaluate the effects of temporal heterogeneity on survey objectives and optimize decisions related to survey bias and variance. Finally, managers and researchers involved in the survey design process must realize that obtaining the best survey results requires an interactive and recursive process of survey design, execution, analysis and redesign. Survey refinements will be possible as further knowledge is gained on the actual abundance and distribution of the population and on the most efficient techniques for detection animals.

Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Na↗
USGS2010

Bank erosion, mass wasting, water clarity, bathymetry and a sediment budget along the dam-regulated Lower Roanoke River, North Carolina

Dam construction and its impact on downstream fluvial processes may substantially alter ambient bank stability, floodplain inundation patterns, and channel morphology. Most of the world's largest rivers have been dammed, which has prompted management efforts to mitigate dam effects. Three high dams (completed between 1953 and 1963) occur along the Piedmont portion of the Roanoke River, North Carolina; just downstream, the lower part of the river flows across largely unconsolidated Coastal Plain deposits. To document bank erosion rates along the lower Roanoke River, more than 700 bank erosion pins were installed along 124 bank transects. Additionally, discrete measurements of channel bathymetry, water clarity, and presence or absence of mass wasting were documented along the entire 153-kilometer-long study reach. Amounts of bank erosion in combination with prior estimates of floodplain deposition were used to develop a bank erosion and floodplain deposition sediment budget for the lower river. Present bank erosion rates are relatively high [mean 42 milimeters per year (mm/yr)] and are greatest along the middle reaches (mean 60 mm/yr) and on lower parts of the bank on all reaches. Erosion rates were likely higher along upstream reaches than present erosion rates such that erosion rate maxima have migrated downstream. Mass wasting and water clarity also peak along the middle reaches.

North Carolina↗
USGS2011

Diversity and distribution of white-tailed deer mtDNA lineages in chronic wasting disease (CWD) outbreak areas in southern Wisconsin, USA

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting North American cervids. Because it is uniformly fatal, the disease is a major concern in the management of white-tailed deer populations. Management programs to control CWD require improved knowledge of deer interaction, movement, and population connectivity that could influence disease transmission and spread. Genetic methods were employed to evaluate connectivity among populations in the CWD management zone of southern Wisconsin. A 576-base-pair region of the mitochondrial DNA of 359 white-tailed deer from 12 sample populations was analyzed. Fifty-eight variable sites were detected within the sequence, defining 43 haplotypes. While most sample populations displayed similar levels of haplotype diversity, individual haplotypes were clustered on the landscape. Spatial clusters of different haplotypes were apparent in distinct ecoregions surrounding CWD outbreak areas. The spatial distribution of mtDNA haplotypes suggests that clustering of the deer matrilineal groups and population connectivity are associated with broad-scale geographic landscape features. These landscape characteristics may also influence the contact rates between groups and therefore the potential spread of CWD; this may be especially true of local disease spread between female social groups. Our results suggest that optimal CWD management needs to be tailored to fit gender-specific dispersal behaviors and regional differences in deer population connectivity. This information will help wildlife managers design surveillance and monitoring efforts based on population interactions and potential deer movement among CWD-affected and unaffected areas.

Wisconsin↗
USGS2016

Contaminants in urban waters—Science capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey

Streams and estuaries with urban watersheds commonly exhibit increased streamflow and decreased base flow; diminished stream-channel stability; excessive amounts of contaminants such as pesticides, metals, industrial and municipal waste, and combustion products; and alterations to biotic community structure. Collectively, these detrimental effects have been termed the “urban-stream syndrome.” Water-resource managers seek to lessen the effects on receiving water bodies of new urban development and remediate the effects in areas of existing urbanization. Similarly, the scientific community has produced extensive research on these topics, with researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) leading many studies of urban streams and the processes responsible for the urban-stream syndrome. Increasingly, USGS studies are evaluating the effects of management and restoration activities to better understand how urban waters respond to the implementation of management practices. The USGS has expertise in collecting and interpreting data for many physical, chemical, and ecological processes in urban waters and, thus, provides holistic assessments to inform managers of urban water resources.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2012

Assessment of soil-gas contamination at building 310 underground storage tank area, Fort Gordon, Georgia, 2010-2011

Soil gas was assessed for contaminants in the building 310 underground storage tank area adjacent to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Ft. Gordon, Georgia, from October 2010 to September 2011. The assessment, which also included the detection of organic compounds in soil gas, provides environmental contamination data to Fort Gordon personnel pursuant to requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Part B Hazardous Waste Permit process. The study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Army Environmental and Natural Resources Management Office of the U.S. Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon. Soil-gas samplers were deployed below land surface at 37 locations in the building 310 underground storage tank area. Soil-gas samplers were deployed in a grid pattern near the storage tank area as well as downslope of the tank area in the direction of groundwater flow toward an unnamed tributary to Butler Creek. Total petroleum hydrocarbons were detected in 35 of the 37 soil-gas samplers at levels above the method detection level, and the combined mass of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and total xylenes were detected above their detection levels in 8 of the 37 samplers. In addition, the combined masses of undecane, tridecane, and pentadecane were detected at or above their method detection levels in 9 of the 37 samplers. Other volatile organic compounds detected above their respective method detection levels were chloroform, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, and perchloroethylene. In addition, naphthalene, 2-methyl naphthalene, and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene were detected below the method detection levels, but above the nondetection level.

Georgia↗
USGS1967

Ground-water research in the U.S.A.

Ground-water reservoirs and the overlying unsaturated zone-collectively, the "subsurface"-have an enormous capacity to supply water to wells and useful plants, to store water to meet future needs for the same purposes, and, under suitable precautions, to accept wastes. This capacity can be exploited on a maximum scale, however, only on the basis of information one or more orders of magnitude greater than that available at present on the distribution, recoverability, and replenishability of subsurface water. Because usable water must be made available, and waste water must be disposed of, at costs of only a cent or a few cents per cubic meter, there is a critical need for research to devise methods of accomplishing these water-management tasks at reasonable cost. Among the chief target areas for research in subsurface hydrology are permeability distribution, including vertical permeability; prediction of the departure of the storage coefficient from the theoretically "instantaneous" property assumed in flow equations; theory of unsaturated flow based on fundamental soil characteristics that can be measured practicably; geochemical relations including the effects of injecting water of one composition into zones occupied by waters of different composition, generation of acid mine water, occurrence of saline water, and salt-fresh-water relations in coastal and other areas; prediction of the fate of wastes injected underground; geophysical techniques both surface and subsurface to extend, at low cost, information obtained by other means; and practical techniques of artificial recharge, especially through wells. ?? 1967.

Earth-Science Reviews↗
USGS1995

United States Geological Survey, programs in Nevada

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been collecting and interpreting natural-resources data in Nevada for more than 100 years. This long-term commitment enables planners to manage better the resources of a State noted for paradoxes. Although Nevada is one of the most sparsely populated States in the Nation, it has the fastest growing population (fig. 1). Although 90 percent of the land is rural, it is the fourth most urban State. Nevada is the most arid State and relies heavily on water resources. Historically, mining and agriculture have formed the basis of the economy; now tourism and urban development also have become important. The USGS works with more than 40 local, State, and other Federal agencies in Nevada to provide natural-resources information for immediate and long-term decisions. Subjects included in this fact sheet: Low-Level Radioactive-Waste Disposal Mining and Water in the Humboldt Basin Aquifer Systems in the Great Basin Water Allocation in Truckee and Carson Basins National Water-Quality Assessment Program Minerals Assessment for Land Management Irrigation Drainage Ground-Water Movement at Nevada Test Site Oil and Gas Resources National Mapping Program Digital Mapping and Aerial Photography Collection of Hydrologlc Data Geologic Mapping Earthquake Hazards Assessing Mineral Resources of the Subsurface Earth Observation Data Cooperative Programs

Nevada↗