A national assessment of trends in metals and hydrophobic organic contaminants in streams and rivers of the United States using lake and reservoir sediment cores.

The Contaminant Trends in Lake Sediments (CTLS) Project is part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA). The program began in 1991 with the purpose of producing a long-term assessment of the status of and trends in the quality of the Nation’s water resources. Trends in water- quality is one of the highest-priority issues for NAWQA.

CTLS Fact Sheets

    National Summaries

• PAH in coal tar sealcoat a national problem (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2009)
• National-Scale Trends in Organics (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2005) supporting info
• National-Scale Trends in Metals (Env. Tox. & Chem., 2006) data report
• Methods and Age Dating of Cores (USGS SIR 2004-5184)
• Urban Trends in PAHs (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2000)
• Rates of Decrease in DDT and PCBs (Env. Sci. & Tech., 1998)
• Trends in Organochlorine Compounds (Env. Sci. & Tech., 1997)
• Lead Trends (Env. Sci. & Tech., 1997)

    Topical Findings

• Evaluating Mercury and ²¹⁰Pb Atmospheric Fallout and Focusing to Lakes (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2009) supporting info
• Effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Lake Pontchartrain sediments (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2006)
• Parking lot sealcoat: an urban source of PAHs (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2005) supporting info fact sheet Data Report
• Rooftop runoff of metals and PAHs (Chemosphere, 2004)
• Zinc in tires (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2004)
• Reservoir cores versus stream suspended sediments (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2004)
• Monitoring suspended sediment chemistry (Arch. Env. Contam. & Tox., 2003)
• Metal diagenesis in reservoir cores (J. Paleolimnology, 2000)

    Local Results

• Contaminant trends reconstructed from a sediment core from Table Rock Reservoir, northwestern South Carolina (South Carolina Environmental Conference Proceedings, 2009)
• Chemical response of particle-associated contaminants in aquatic sediments to urbanization in New England(Contam. Hydro., 2007)
• Contaminant trends and sources in Ft. Worth, Texas (USGS WRIR 03-4169)
• Trends in New Jersey and New York lakes (USGS WRIR 02-4272)
• Contaminants and urbanization in Southern California (USGS WRIR 02-4175)
• Trends in Dillon Reservoir, Colorado (USGS WRIR 01-4022)
• Lead and Zinc on urban gradient in Georgia (Env. Sci. & Tech., 2000)
• Contam. Trends in White Rock Lake, Texas (J. Paleolimnology, 1997)