A key objective of the Toxic Substances Hydrology (Toxics) Program is to understand the physical, chemical, and biological processes that control contaminant transport in surface water. Many Toxics Program scientists participate in multidisciplinary investigations of the reactive and non-reactive transport of contaminants in rivers and streams. A part of many of these investigations is to develop simulation models to predict contaminant transport in streams. Environmental professionals can use the results of these investigations to design better restoration plans for rivers and streams impacted by contamination from many different sources. The information presented on this page cuts across lines drawn by individual investigations and projects so that information on contaminant transport surface-water can be presented in one place.

Investigations and Research Activities

• Watershed Contamination from Hard-Rock Mining
• Pesticide Contamination in Varied Pesticide-Use Settings
• In-Stream Processes that Control the Fate of Emerging Contaminants
• Antibiotics in the Spring Flush that Occurs in Midwestern Streams
• Biotransformation of Tributyltin in Freshwater River-Bed Sediments
• Investigations of Emerging Contaminants from Wastewater Treatment Plants
• USGS Surface-water quality and flow Modeling Interest Group (SMIG)
• Transient Storage Reader 1, The Transient Storage Concept, Reading List on Applications for Stream Solute Transport in the Context of Stream-Catchment Connections
• Transient Storage Reader 2, The Transient Storage Concept, Comprehensive Reading List on Applications for Stream Solute Transport with Selected References in the Context of Stream-Catchment Connections, Hyporheic Exchange Flows, and Reactive Solute Transport
• Mining-Related Stream Transport Simulation Reader, A Reading List on Applications of OTEQ, OTIS, and Transient Storage for Metals, Cations, and Acidic Streams
• Coupled Transport and Geochemical Processes Determining the Fate of Chemicals in Surface Waters
• Solute Transport Involving Biological Processes in Surface Waters
• Benthic Fluxes of Metals and Nutrients
• Diel Cycling of Trace Metals in Streams
• Isotope Tracers of Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Processes
• Hydrologic and Chemical Interactions between Surface Water and Ground Water
• Biotic Interface with Fluvial Transport Processes Associated with Dissolved Solutes in Transport
• Toxics Program - Metal Release, Transport, and Attenuation in Mined Areas: Mechanisms and Implications for Remediation and Land-Use Strategies
• Modeling Crosscutting Topic

Fact Sheets

• Diurnal variation in trace-metal concentrations in streams: USGS Fact Sheet FS-86-03
• Contaminant Sorption by Soil and Bed Sediment -- Is There a Difference?: USGS Fact Sheet FS-087-00
• Nitrogen in the Mississippi Basin--Estimating Sources and Predicting Flux to the Gulf of Mexico: USGS Fact Sheet FS-135-00

Water sampling to assess the transport of pesticides in the San Joaquin River, CA
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Headlines

• Biofilms in Streams Help Create Daily Variations in Metal Concentrations
• Wastewater Indicators Shown to Degrade in Streams
• Mercury Concentrations in Streams Found to Go Through Daily Cycles
• Are Pharmaceuticals in Your Watershed? Understanding the Fate of Pharmaceuticals and Other Contaminants in Watersheds
• Book Chapter on Exposure Modeling and Monitoring of Human Pharmaceuticals in the Environment
• Glyphosate Found in Wastewater Discharged to Streams
• Importance and Causes of Daily Variation in Metal Concentrations in Streams
• Daily Variation of Metals in Streams Can Confound Scientific Studies
• New Diffusion Samplers Track Contamination Entering Lakes and Ponds
• Tracking Atrazine and a Breakdown Product (deethylatrazine) through a Drinking-Water Reservoir
• MTBE Biodegrades Naturally in Stream Sediments
• Nature's Way of Cleaning Up Mining-Contaminated Streams
• Tracer Tests Steer Cleanup of Mined Watersheds

Bibliography

• Publications on Surface-Water Contaminant Transport (384 Publications)

New Publications

Upcoming Publications

• Understanding the occurrence and transport of current-use pesticides in the San Francisco Estuary Watershed: Kuivila, K.M., and Hladik, M.L., San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (IN PRESS).
• An Eulerian-Lagrangian numerical scheme for simulating streams with advection, dispersion, and transient storage in streams and a comparison of numerical methods: Cox, T.J., and Runkel, R.L., Journal of Environmental Engineering (IN PRESS).
• Interpretation of a transient storage model of stream solute transport applied to overlapping spatial scales: Gooseff, M.N., Briggs, M.A., Bencala, K.E., McGlynn, B.L., and Scott, D.T., Limnology and Oceanography--Methods (IN PRESS).
• One-dimensional transport with equilibrium chemistry (OTEQ)--A reactive transport model for streams and rivers: Runkel, R.L., U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods book 6, chapter B6 (IN PRESS).

Newly Published

• Understanding the occurrence and transport of current-use pesticides in the San Francisco Estuary watershed: Kuivila, K.M., and Hladik, M.L., 2008, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, v. 6, no. 3, Article 2.
• Mercury and organic carbon dynamics during runoff episodes from a northeastern USA watershed: Schuster, P., Shanley, J., Marvin-Dipasquale, M., Reddy, M., Aiken, G., Roth, D., Taylor, H., Krabbenhoft, D., and DeWild, J., 2008, Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, v. 187, no. 1, p. 89-108, doi:10.1007/s11270-007-9500-3.
• Metals fate and transport modelling in streams and watersheds--State of the science and USEPA workshop review: Caruso, B.S., Cox, T.J., Runkel, R.L., Velleux, M.L., Bencala, K.E., Nordstrom, D.K., Julien, P.Y., Butler, B.A., Alpers, C.N., Marion, A., and Smith, K.S., 2008, Hydrologic Processes, v. 22, no. 19, p. 4011-4021, doi:10.1002/hyp.7114.

Dye was used in a study of the transport and degradation of atrazine (a herbicide) in Roberts Creek, IA, as part of a study of fate and occurrence of herbicides in the Midwest corn belt. The dye helped scientists determine the transport time of water as it moved through the study reach of the stream. The red color in the stream is rhodamine WT dye
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