I. Executive Summary

The Toxic Substances Hydrology (TOXICS) Program provides unbiased and reliable scientific information and tools that explain the occurrence, behavior, and effects of toxic substances in the Nation's hydrologic environments and support sound decision-making by resource managers, regulators, industry, and the public.

The Program's long-term goals are:

• Scientific understanding of subsurface contamination at local releases, such as chemical spills, leaking storage tanks, industrial discharges and municipal landfills that affect aquifers and local receiving waters - subsurface, point-source contamination; and
• Scientific understanding of contamination from nonpoint and distributed point sources that affect the watersheds and aquatic ecosystems at broad regional scales - watershed- and regional-scale contamination.

Current subsurface, point-source contamination studies include:

• Ground-water flow and transport in fractured rock,
• Processes affecting disposal and potential migration of mixed wastes in thick unsaturated zones in the arid southwest,
• Transport and fate of contamination associated with petroleum and gasoline (including fuel oxygenates and contamination associated with energy production),
• Sewage-contaminated ground water, and
• Transport and fate of complex waste mixtures in landfill leachate.

Future research priorities for subsurface, point-source contamination are to: develop modeling and monitoring methods that quantify the long-term viability of natural cleanup alternatives, understand the complexities of contaminant behavior in fractured rock, develop methods for improved simulation, optimization and uncertainty analysis for subsurface contaminant plumes, and address priority point-source contamination issues including fuel oxygenates (MTBE and potential alternatives) and potential environmental implications of energy production. This research will benefit from expanded collaboration with geologists in the Energy Resources, Mineral Resources, Coastal and Marine Geology, and Earthquake Hazards Programs.

Current watershed- and regional-scale contamination studies include:

• Contamination by new pesticides and pesticide degradation products in typical pesticide-use settings,
• Varied human influences on priority ecosystems including estuaries,
• Hard rock mining and abandoned mine lands,
• Effects of mercury contamination on aquatic ecosystems, emerging contaminants in the nation's water resources, and
• Causes of amphibian declines and deformities.

Future research priorities for watershed- and regional-scale contamination are to: develop approaches and management tools that enable cost-efficient problem characterization and mitigation both through best management practices and through targeted cleanup activities, understand the processes affecting mercury contamination in aquatic ecosystems, develop conceptual, statistical and simulation models that enable explanation of the movement of contaminants throughout watersheds and across compartments in the hydrologic cycle, and identify and assess emerging environmental contaminants, including analytical methods development, reconnaissance assessments, and investigation of ecological effects. This research will benefit from expanded collaboration with the Contaminant Biology, National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA), National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN), Bio Environmental Status and Trends (BEST), Energy Resources, and Mineral Resources Programs.

II. Introduction

Contamination of surface water, ground water, soil, sediment, and the atmosphere by toxic substances is among the most significant issues facing the Nation. Contaminants such as excessive nutrients, organic chemicals, metals, and pathogens enter the environment, often inadvertently, via industrial, agricultural, mining, or other human activities. The extent of their migration and persistence in the environment often is difficult to ascertain. Estimates of the costs and time frames for cleanup of contaminated sites (for example, Superfund sites and leaking underground storage tanks) can best be described as astounding. In recent years, a dramatic increase in concern for the effects of nonpoint-source contamination on human and environmental health is evidenced by regulatory activities under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act. Reliable scientific information and management tools are needed to characterize and cleanup contamination from point source releases, and to make sound decisions related to regulation, resource management, manufacturing, and chemical and land-use practices, so as to minimize nonpoint-source contamination.

The USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology (TOXICS) Program was initiated in 1982 to provide objective and reliable scientific information needed to develop policies and practices that help avoid exposure to toxic substances, mitigate environmental deterioration from contaminants, provide cost-effective cleanup and waste-disposal strategies, and reduce future risk of contamination. Long standing expertise in the characterization and understanding of the quantity and quality of natural water-resource systems and the response of these systems to human influences make the USGS uniquely qualified to provide essential information on the processes that affect the transport, fate, and effects of contamination in the hydrologic cycle.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Research Council (NRC), in two recent reviews of USGS activities titled: Hazardous Materials in the Hydrologic Environment: The Role of the U.S. Geological Survey (NRC, 1996), and Future Roles and Opportunities for the U.S. Geological Survey (NRC, 2001), had the following comments on the TOXICS Program's unique niche among science programs.

"The characterization of processes relevant to the transport and fate of hazardous materials in soils and waters is a significant strength of the USGS. Long-term, field-based studies, for example, have been one of the agency's greatest strengths. ... The USGS should lead the effort to perform the long-term assessments that are essential to both technology refinement and informed policy decisions." (NRC, 1996, p 2).

"Hazardous material and toxic waste research in the United States is conducted by a variety of organizations including universities, federal and state government agencies, and large and small corporations. Historically, the type of research each has conducted has been framed by a variety of factors, such as the mission of the organizations, history, and circumstance. Federal agencies with missions related to regulating hazardous materials (e.g. EPA) or with extensive remediation problems at agency sites (e.g. DOD, DOE) have a perspective toward research strongly oriented toward short-term results. The USGS is one of the few federal agencies with a more long-term view, having a broad program in field-oriented, multidisciplinary research in hazardous materials science as related to problems in the natural environment. The USGS is known throughout the world for its experience in monitoring the natural environment and for the collection of high-quality, consistent data sets. The USGS is particularly well versed in taking an integrated approach to the study of systems …

Universities, by virtue of the discontinuous funding they receive for research and the relatively more limited infrastructure, typically restrict their research to aspects of process discovery. ... Field-related hazardous material remediation studies, when they are undertaken, often require strong support from organizations like the USGS, ARS, or the DOE that have ongoing field operations. …

The USGS is one of a very few organizations among all of the groups (universities, other federal agencies, and states) that has the ability to conduct long-term research in field settings." (NRC, 1996, p. 17-18).

"The USGS supplies scientific information and advice about current environmental issues. This information is used by federal, state, and local agencies in carrying out their regulatory and administrative functions. The USGS is also expected to anticipate emerging environmental issues. …Historically, much environmental research has been directed at solving immediate problems. However, this problem-specific approach is limited; it misses the opportunity to use research to create scientific and technological building blocks or core research, which can enhance our future ability to address a wide range of environmental problems. … Undoubtedly, the USGS will be asked to address overarching environmental problems in the future. Solutions of these social problems require a broad research program that is capable of developing complex system models and using advanced technology.", (NRC, 2001, p. 49-51).

Historical contributions of the Program have been made in a number of areas, including:

• Development of methods to characterize contaminant plumes in unconsolidated and fractured rock aquifers,
• Development of simulation models to design monitoring and remediation of subsurface contaminant plumes,
• Documenting the capability of bioremediation and natural attenuation as a viable and cost-effective clean-up alternative for subsurface contamination,
• Development of methods to measure new environmental contaminants in aquatic ecosystems and of data on their occurrence and environmental health implications,
• Development of approaches to address watersheds contaminated by multiple sources of varied and unknown intensity,
• Development of tracer technologies as tools to quantify processes that affect contaminant transport, transformation and fate, and
• Identification of the factors that affect mercury bioaccumulation in aquatic ecosystems.

The proceedings of the National Meeting of the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program held in Charleston South Carolina on March 8-12, 1999 (Morganwalp and Buxton, editors, 1999a, 1999b and 1999c), provides a summary of recent program priorities and results. The proceedings contains 175 technical papers reflecting the contributions of 350 scientists who are the coauthors, including over 50 USGS scientists with expertise in disciplines other than water, and more than 90 scientists from universities, other agencies and industry. Program priorities and activities in 2000 are summarized in the Fact Sheet, USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program, 2000 (Buxton, 2001). In addition, the Program maintains an Internet site (http://toxics.usgs.gov) that provides current information on TOXICS Program activities and contributions.

III. Program Mission and Long-Term Goals

The Mission of the TOXICS Program is to provide unbiased and reliable scientific information and tools that explain the occurrence and behavior of toxic substances in the Nation's hydrologic environments and support sound decision-making by resource managers, regulators, industry, and the public. Although the TOXICS Program conducts investigations over a wide range of geographic scales, in varied hydrogeologic terrain, and on numerous types of contamination and contaminant sources, program activities are focused on two major long-term goals:

Goal 1: Scientific understanding of subsurface contamination at local releases, such as chemical spills, leaking storage tanks, industrial discharges and municipal landfills that affect aquifers and local receiving waters - subsurface, point-source contamination; and

Goal 2: Scientific understanding of contamination from nonpoint and distributed point sources that affect watersheds and aquatic ecosystems at broad regional scales - watershed- and regional-scale contamination.

The USGS is the Nation's principal natural sciences and information agency. USGS conducts research, monitoring, and assessments to contribute to the understanding of our land, water, and biological resources. The mission of the USGS is to provide reliable scientific information to managers, planners, and citizens to understand, respond to, and plan for changes in our environment. The TOXICS Program supports the USGS long-term program goal in Environment and Natural Resources:

"Maintain, provide and improve long-term environmental and natural resources information, systematic analyses and investigations, and predictive tools for scenario building and decision making about natural systems." USGS, 1999, USGS Strategic Plan: 2000-2005.

The National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, in the aforementioned review further support this role and mission.

"Hazardous materials in the hydrologic environment are a problem of substantial national significance… The role of the USGS in this arena is to expand scientific knowledge relevant to the behavior of hazardous materials." (NR, 2001, p. 45).

"In the United States, a massive effort is in progress to remediate sites at which hazardous materials threaten the environment. The science and technology programs of the WRD [Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey], with a heritage of over 100 years, contribute significantly to the national remediation effort by continually imparting new and credible understanding about soil and water contamination. This report reinforces the widely-held viewpoint that addressing the nation's hazardous materials problems is a large and challenging undertaking involving many entities in a cooperative fashion. Among these entities, the USGS has important roles to play." (NRC, 1996, p. 1).

Fundamental Themes

Fundamental themes that motivate short-term goals and products of TOXICS Program investigations are:

• Process Understanding - Characterize the physical, chemical and biological processes that control contaminant source loading, transport and transformation in the environment with special emphasis on the natural response of hydrologic systems to contamination.
• Measurement - Develop methods for environmental measurement of a wide range of physical, chemical and biological properties that control the rates of transport and transformation processes, and measurement of contaminants and their byproducts in environmental samples from different media at levels low enough to explain environmental processes.
• Environmental Health - Describe the influence of contaminants on organisms, ecosystems, and the food web, and the potential long-term implications for human and environmental health.
• Modeling - Develop simulation models to assess environmental occurrence and potential exposure, by predicting contaminant transport, transformation, persistence, and fate, and to design management strategies, including monitoring networks, best management practices, and new techniques for waste disposal and remediation.

Research and Planning Strategy

The TOXICS Program conducts interdisciplinary, long-term, field-based research. Interdisciplinary research teams composed of USGS scientists from the National Research Program (NRP), District, and other USGS programs with complementary missions or essential expertise, as well as scientists from universities, government agencies, and industry conduct the research. The research is workplan driven. That is, research teams led by investigation coordinators develop research plans that facilitate a broad, holistic and interdisciplinary research strategy. This research approach provides an infrastructure and critical mass of scientific expertise needed to address real field contamination problems. It is a contribution that USGS is uniquely suited to make.

Investigation planning is implemented through a workplan development process. Planning workshops play an essential role by providing a means of gathering USGS research scientists together with stakeholders and colleagues to develop essential information on current knowledge, research needs, and requirements for interdisciplinary expertise. The information is used to develop the research workplan and the corresponding research team. The workplan is finalized after a formal review conducted by a committee of USGS and nonUSGS experts; the review usually includes a site visit and (or) a research-team planning meeting. Workplan development and review also is discussed later in the section Program Review and Quality of Products. This workplan-based approach facilitates bringing research scientists together in a collaborative, synergistic research environment.

The funding distribution of the TOXICS Program facilitates collaboration with scientists from other disciplines to address complex environmental problems. Funding resources are distributed approximately as follows: 5 percent to complementary Geology program activities, 8 percent to Place-Based Studies Program activities, 41 percent to National Research Program activities, and 44 percent to District activities. Less than 3 percent of funding resources are expended on program management. University scientists, scientists from other governmental agencies, and USGS scientists from other programs bring additional resources from other funding sources, support similar goals and benefit from the research infrastructure provided by TOXICS Program activities. This is an area of collaboration with the greatest opportunity for enhancement during the planning period.

IV. Future Research Directions

Program reviews, accomplishments and feedback from stakeholders have reinforced the continued relevance of the Program's original mission. The research model, an interdisciplinary, representative, and long-term, field-based approach, has proven successful at building strong research teams that can solve complex and interdisciplinary problems, and at building strong foundations of scientific information and tools that can be applied to short-term management decisions at similar contamination sites. Research objectives have evolved effectively with input from stakeholders and colleagues, and where new findings refine priorities and define new problems.

Research Priorities: Subsurface Point-Source Contamination

Priorities for future research on subsurface point-source contamination are:

• Natural Attenuation - Develop characterization and monitoring methods that quantify the long-term viability of natural cleanup alternatives and thus reduce uncertainty and build public confidence in the effectiveness of these low-cost alternatives.
• Fractured Rock - Understand the complexities of contaminant behavior in fractured rock, particularly the chemical and microbiological processes that control contaminant transport and fate, the influence of the presence of dense nonaqueous-phase liquids (DNAPLs) on contaminant transport, and simulation tools for flow and transport in varying types of fractured-rock aquifers.
• Modeling - Develop methods for improved simulation, optimization and uncertainty analysis for the characterization, management and cleanup of subsurface contaminant plumes.
• Emerging Issues - Investigate priority point-source contamination issues including fuel oxygenates (MTBE and potential alternatives) and potential environmental implications of energy production.

Future progress will benefit from expanded collaboration with USGS geologists in the Energy Resources, Mineral Resources, Coastal and Marine Geology, and Earthquake Hazards Programs.

Research Priorities: Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination

Priorities for future research on watershed- and regional-scale contamination include:

• Strategies to Support Adaptive Management - Develop approaches and management tools that enable cost-efficient problem characterization and mitigation both through management practices and through targeted cleanup activities (such as for nutrient cycling in the Mississippi River Basin, and abandoned mine lands in watersheds, respectively).
• Mercury Cycling - Understand the processes affecting mercury contamination and bioaccumulation in aquatic ecosystems and increase collaboration with other USGS programs, and other agencies involved with water, air, and mining-related mercury issues.
• Modeling - Development of statistical and simulation models that enable explanation of the movement of contaminants across compartments in the hydrologic cycle and throughout watersheds, and the implications of that movement on aquatic resources and human health.
• Emerging Contaminants - Identify and assess new or emerging contaminants, including analytical and sampling methods development, reconnaissance assessments, and investigation of ecological effects, through collaboration with other water quality and biology programs.

Collaboration with the Contaminants, NAWQA, NASQAN, BEST, Energy Resources, and Mineral Resources Programs will significantly enhance progress in these research areas.

V. Program 5-Year Goals and Objectives

The two long-term goals of the TOXICS Program will be implemented during the 5-Year period 2002-2006 through a broad range of research objectives and associated interdisciplinary, field-based investigations. Changes in program emphasis and priorities are described below for each of these objective-based investigations. Total funding for the TOXICS Program in fiscal year 2002 is approximately $13,900,000; this document assumes level funding during the 5-year planning period. The approximate annual funding for the major program goals and objective-based investigation over the 5-year planning period is provided.

Goal 1: Subsurface Point-Source Contamination - $6,100,000

Subsurface, point-source contamination is investigated through intensive field investigations established at representative sites contaminated with common types of environmental contamination and located in commonly occurring geohydrologic and geochemical settings. Currently, chlorinated solvents, sewage effluent, toxic metals, radionuclides, and petroleum products, including fuel oxygenates are under investigation. Project researchers identify and quantify the physical, chemical, and biological processes that control contaminant transport and fate at a local site. Through extensive characterization and field experimentation, the sites provide field-laboratory conditions that enhance research opportunities. Results from the sites are generalized by focused field and laboratory experiments at other sites that describe the range of field conditions and rates of the controlling processes. Knowledge, methods, and models produced at these representative sites improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of characterization and remediation at similar sites across the Nation by improving the scientific basis for decision-making.

A unifying theme of this research is characterization of the natural response of hydrologic systems to contamination. Use of this system approach combined with the long-term nature of the research enables the TOXICS Program to excel in assessing the potential and limitations of natural-attenuation remediation alternatives and remediation-performance monitoring. The results are used to characterize contamination, to select and design remediation alternatives, and to evaluate performance of remediation and waste-disposal alternatives.

Goal 2: Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination - $7,800,000

Watershed- and regional-scale contamination is investigated where specific common land uses or human activities may threaten environmental quality, and human and ecological health. These studies involve: determining to what extent widely used chemicals enter the environment (at what levels and in what mixtures), characterizing contaminant sources and source mechanisms, understanding the processes that control transport and fate of contaminants in the hydrologic cycle (including degradation byproducts), and developing approaches and modeling tools for aiding management decision-making. Current investigations include contamination from agricultural chemicals, human wastewater contaminants, historic hard-rock mining, human activities in estuarine ecosystems, and atmospheric mercury emissions.

The results are useful for characterizing and managing contamination, for development of best management practices, for developing regulatory policies and standards, for registering the use of new chemicals, for decisions on what chemicals to manufacture, and for development of chemical usage guidelines. The TOXICS Program watershed- and regional-scale investigations focus rapidly on new capabilities, new issues, emerging contaminants, and understanding the processes that affect whether an issue may be of widespread concern. As such, these investigations complement the NAWQA Program, The National Stream Quality Accounting Network and other USGS water-quality activities, which monitor and assess the status and trends of the quality of the Nation's water resources, and use TOXICS Program results for planning their future activities.

A. Major Program Objectives

Thirteen major program objectives and the associated objective-based investigations are grouped by their respective program goal. The activities of each of these objective-based investigations are evolving to some degree, ranging from annual research planning under an existing research workplan to planning for development and review of a revised research workplan. The funding indicated for each investigation is for planning purposes; small changes are expected as planning emphasis changes during the 5-year planning period.

Goal 1: Subsurface Point-Source Contamination

• Ground Water Flow and Transport in Fractured Rock ($1,250,000) - Researchers are developing methods for defining the movement of water and contaminants in fractured-rock aquifers. Contaminant transport and fate is fundamentally different in fractured rock than in unconsolidated (sand and gravel) aquifers. Significantly more uncertainty exists as to the direction and rate of contaminant movement, as well as the processes and factors that control chemical and microbial transformations. At many contaminated sites across the Nation, remedial action is delayed or stymied by the complexity of contaminated fractured-rock aquifers.
  Long-term research concentrating on the physical processes that affect water and contaminant movement has been conducted at the Program's uncontaminated fractured-rock research site, Mirror Lake, New Hampshire by an interdisciplinary team of scientists from the USGS including scientists from the Mineral Resources, Coastal and Marine Geology, and Earthquake Hazards Programs.
  
  In 1999, the TOXICS Program instituted a process to select a new "contaminated" fractured-rock research site. Research at this site would build upon existing knowledge of physical processes of water and contaminant movement and focus on geochemical and microbiological process that affect contaminant transport. The first planning workshop solicited input from major stakeholders on research needs and priorities. In 2000, a site selection committee representing USGS regional management, the National Research Program, district scientists, and geology programs, identified the Naval Air Warfare Center in Trenton, New Jersey as this new research site. Solvents and fuel contamination of a sedimentary-rock aquifer characterize the site. The research workplan currently is under development by the research team that includes geology program scientists. The workplan will be completed and reviewed by a formal review committee during the 5-year planning period.
  
  Future research at this new contaminated fractured-rock research site will attempt to develop the understanding of contaminant processes, including natural cleanup mechanisms, for fractured-rock aquifers that is currently available for these processes in unconsolidated aquifers. Other research priorities are understanding of the effects of the presence of DNAPLs on contaminant transport and persistence in fractured-rock aquifers, and development of simulation methods that represent ground-water flow and transport processes in varied types of fractured rock.
  

• Waste Disposal and Contaminant Migration in Deep Unsaturated Zones in the Arid West, Amargosa Desert Research Site (ADRS), NV ($600,000) – Subsurface sites in the arid western United States are being relied upon to isolate a significant portion of the Nation's radioactive and other hazardous wastes for periods up to thousands of years. Studies at the ADRS are investigating factors and processes that control the transport and fate of contaminants in these deep unsaturated zones, which commonly occur in desert environments between the land surface and underlying aquifers. A process to develop a peer-reviewed research plan was completed in late 1999. Current research is progressing in accordance with that plan. Priorities include the development of methods for measuring and modeling the transport of mixed wastes in arid environments, and the establishment of long-term hydrologic data sets in both perturbed and unperturbed settings. Such measurement tools, interpretive tools, and data sets are needed in connection with the design and management of waste-disposal facilities and monitoring systems.
  
  
• Transport and Fate of Petroleum and Gasoline, including Fuel Oxygenates ($1,450,000) - Subsurface spills of petroleum compounds (crude oil, gasoline, and additives) may be the most frequently cited cause of ground-water contamination. Research is being conducted at four research sites. Understanding and tools essential for effective remediation and long-term management of fuel spills are being developed.
1. Crude Oil Contamination in the Shallow Subsurface - Bemidji, Minnesota: Knowledge gained at this site of the processes that control migration and fate of hydrocarbons in the subsurface has facilitated adoption of natural attenuation as a widely accepted remediation alternative for hydrocarbon contamination at sites across the Nation (the natural attenuation paradigm). Currently, research activities are emphasizing the role of the long-term sources of hydrocarbon residue in the unsaturated zone and the implications for persistence of contaminant plumes.
2. Conventional Gasoline - Galloway Township, New Jersey: Models and field methods have been developed to quantify natural attenuation of contaminants by biodegradation and volatilization, and to enhance natural attenuation using unsaturated zone vapor extraction. Although activities at this site are curtailed, research has extended to evaluating the role of the unsaturated zone in the hydrologic cycling of volatile organic chemicals on the scale of multiple point sources.
3. Oxygenated Gasoline - Laurel Bay, South Carolina: Use of Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a fuel oxygenate challenges the natural attenuation paradigm for remediation of gasoline spills. MTBE is more resistant to degradation than non-oxygenated gasoline components, and moves more readily in ground water. Research has documented how MTBE persists in the subsurface and is focusing on identifying field conditions with significant biodegradation, on the long-term limitations of natural attenuation, and on effective remedial strategies. Future research will consider MTBE and alternate fuel oxygenates as well as the larger scale effects of multiple point-source hydrocarbon releases on regional water quality.
4. Osage-Skiatook Petroleum Environmental Research Project - Osage Reservation, Oklahoma : Oil and gas production has occurred in areas of the Nation for over a century. Associated crude oil and hyper saline wastewater releases have impacted soils, surface and ground water, and ecosystems. Effects include soil destruction, death or distress of vegetation, and ground and surface water contamination. This is a joint TOXICS and Energy Resources program activity. The site was selected in 2000 by a joint team of scientists from both Programs in consultation with stakeholders. Funding for this activity currently is at a minimum. Workplan development and planning activities will remain limited until additional resources are available for this investigation.
   
Planning for a revised workplan for research in petroleum-related contaminants will begin during the 5-year planning period. Priority research issues include fuel oxygenates (MTBE and potential alternatives), potential contamination associated with energy production, the effects of point sources on regional ground-water quality, and development of methods to evaluate the long-term viability of natural cleanup alternatives. Progress on these issues will benefit from continued collaboration and planning with geologists in the Energy Resources, Mineral Resources, Coastal and Marine Geology, and Earthquake Hazards Programs.

• Plume Transport Phenomenon and Sewage-Contaminated Ground Water, Cape Cod, MA ($1,100,000) - A plume of sewage-tainted ground water down gradient from a disposal site is being studied. Measurements of very small-scale variations in contaminant concentrations and results of field tracer experiments are being used to improve models of how complex mixtures of contaminants move and attenuate naturally in the subsurface. Research priorities include development of methods for improved field characterization, improved simulation and uncertainty analysis, and definition of the long-term viability of natural cleanup alternatives for aquifers exposed long-term to wastewater effluent.
  
  
• Transport and Fate of Complex Waste Mixtures in Landfill Leachate - Norman Municipal Landfill, OK ($950,000) - Leachate from thousands of active and closed landfills across the Nation may pose a threat to ground water and receiving waters. This research is characterizing the chemical nature of the source (landfill leachate), defining the biogeochemical controls on the migration and fate of the complex mixture of contaminants. Research priorities include assessing the effectiveness of natural hydrologic and biogeochemical processes at mitigating the spread of contaminants from the landfill toward potential environmental receptors, and developing management tools to apply this information to sound landfill monitoring, design and management elsewhere. An evaluation of the continued potential for research at the site and development of a new workplan is scheduled to start during the 5-year planning period. Geology discipline scientists have applied geophysical methods to subsurface and plume characterization; a Minerals Resources Program scientist has a prominent role on this research team.
  
  
• Subsurface Characterization and Modeling Methods ($750,000) - New simulation and statistical modeling tools and new methods for field and laboratory measurements of a wide range of environmental properties are developed. These tools often are tested at the field sites, but are not associated with a specific field investigation. They are applicable to a wide range of contamination problems. Research priorities include development of methods for improved simulation, optimization, and uncertainty analysis, and cost efficient methods for estimating properties that control the rates of contaminant transport processes. Largely, National Research Program scientists implement this activity. Although research is motivated by research needs identified by program field investigations, broader stakeholder needs affect these activities. There is no organized planning activity that directs this research; however, program workshops and synthesis publications provide a focal point for results.

Goal 2: Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination

• Agricultural Chemicals ($1,700,000) - Large-scale agricultural activities with similar crops and/or farming practices are being investigated. Results have influenced manufacturing and licensing of agricultural chemicals, and agricultural and chemical-use practices. There are two major objectives under this investigation:
  
  Methods Development and Reconnaissance - developing methods to measure new agricultural chemicals and their byproducts in water samples at environmentally relevant concentrations, and conducting field reconnaissance surveys in common pesticide-use settings to test the potential significance of these compounds as environmental contaminants.
  
  Transport and Fate Research - characterizing processes that affect source mechanisms, dispersal of chemicals in the atmosphere, ground water, and surface water, and identifying persistent byproducts, and contaminant fate and ecological effects; and to develop statistical and/or simulation models of contaminant transport and fate.
  
  Various field-based activities are conducted that address both of these objectives. Currently, two major activities are underway:

1. The Midwest Corn Belt - This area extends across parts of 12 states and accounts for about 65 percent of the total harvested cropland and 60 percent of herbicide use in the Nation. The area is characterized predominantly by corn and soybean production. The associated herbicide use affects streams, reservoirs, ground water, rainwater and air.
2. Cotton Agriculture Across the Southern U.S.- Pesticide usage for cotton farming typically is three to five times that for corn or soybeans. The areas of intense cotton growing - the Mississippi Embayment, the High Plains of Texas, southern Arizona, and southern California - have varied hydrologic settings and very different mechanisms for contaminant migration in the environment.

The Program's agricultural chemical research currently is undergoing a planning process to redefine the scope and workplan of agricultural-chemicals-related activities that best suit the role of the TOXICS Program. This planning activity is considering: stakeholder priorities, the relation to NAWQA Program agricultural chemicals activities (which have undergone a significant modification through NAWQ cycle II planning), the Contaminants Program (which could provide significant synergies in the area of the ecological significance of agricultural-chemical contamination), and other USGS programs such as Geographic Applications and Research.

An agricultural-chemicals workshop, held in April 2001, initiated this process by gathering information from major stakeholders, identifying new research priorities and activities, and exploring opportunities for increased collaboration with USGS scientists from other programs. Participants included USEPA Office of Pesticide Programs, USDA Water Quality Working Group, USFWS Division of Environmental Quality, biology Contaminants Program scientists, NAWQA Agricultural Chemicals National Synthesis Team, and TOXICS Program scientists from District, NRP and the NWQL Methods Research and Development. The workplan revision for the TOXICS Program Agricultural Chemicals investigation will be completed during the 5-year planning period. Participation by USGS scientists from the NAWQA, Contaminants, and Geographic Applications and Research Programs is planned.

• Varied Human Influences on Estuaries, San Francisco Bay, CA ($1,250,000) - Like all urban estuaries in the world, San Francisco Bay receives toxic substances from a variety of natural and human sources. Studies here focus on characterizing the interrelated sources and processes that control contamination within estuarine and delta ecosystems. Results of these studies are providing an understanding of the effects of contamination on species throughout the food web, and of the effectiveness of resource-management strategies. This TOXICS Program investigation is coordinated closely with activities of the Place-Based Studies Program in San Francisco Bay. Kuwabara and others (1999, "Understanding the Human Influences on the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary Ecosystem - The Toxic Substances Hydrology Program and USGS Place-Based Studies Program Provide Complementary Approaches and Results") describes the relationship between these complementary activities. In addition, the investigation is closely linked with the needs of other regional and state programs (e.g., Water Resources Control Board, CALFED, USEPA). A research priority for this investigation continues to be evaluation of the complex effects of contamination on estuarine ecosystems. Agricultural chemicals related research conducted in San Francisco Bay currently is being reevaluated as part of the Agricultural Chemicals investigation planning process.
  
  
• Hard Rock Mining and Abandoned Mine Lands ($1,800,000) - Thousands of historical hard rock mines (such as gold, copper, and zinc mines) exist across the Western United States. Mine dumps, tailing piles (the residue after ore processing), and unmined mineral deposits often contaminate the surrounding watershed and ecosystems when weathering of exposed minerals results in acid drainage and metals-enriched waters. Research is focusing on the processes that affect migration of contamination within a watershed and the resulting ecosystem effects. Three activities are described below. Two studies are underway in watersheds with differing climate and hydrologic settings; representative knowledge and methods are developed in these watersheds. As part of the third activity, the USGS Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative, new approaches are being demonstrated and transferred to land managers and other stakeholders.
1. Historical Hard-Rock Mining in Rocky Mountain Terrain - Characterizing mining contamination in mountain streams is often confounded by the facts that numerous sources can take obscure pathways to the stream and much streamflow can occur within the coarse gravel streambed. Stream tracer methods, which were developed and tested in the Upper Arkansas River, Colorado, have enabled identification of specific sources of stream contamination.
2. Historical Hard-Rock Mining in Southwest Alluvial Basins - In this arid area, contaminants often are transported great distances by ground water and may threaten regional water supplies or other receptors. At Pinal Creek, Arizona, scientists are studying the geochemical evolution of a plume of metals-laden ground water and its ultimate interaction with Pinal Creek. Surface- and ground-water interaction has been found to play a major role in contaminant processing. Improved models of surface- and ground-water interaction, and ground-water transport developed here are useful in other areas with different physical and chemical characteristics.
3. USGS Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Initiative - This Initiative brings USGS expertise together to assist land managers. Watersheds often have hundreds of abandoned mine sites with little information on their relative significance, making the traditional site-by-site approach grossly inefficient. Interdisciplinary research that brings USGS expertise in hydrology, geology, biology and geographic analysis has led to development of a revolutionary, watershed-based approach to remediation. Working with federal land managers and stakeholders in two of their priority watersheds - the Upper Animas River, Colorado, and the Boulder River, Montana - has enabled decision-making that identified realistic cleanup goals, and remediation that targets contamination sources that have the most significant effect on watershed quality. The USGS Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative has demonstrated the advantages afforded by placing an interdisciplinary team of USGS scientists directly in the field working with land managers and stakeholders. This will serve as a model for future TOXICS Program AML activities. The Initiative is completing operations in the priority watersheds in 2002.

A workshop with federal land managers and other stakeholders in 2002 will summarize results and lessons learned from the AML Initiative and start a planning process among the USGS Programs that have been involved in this Initiative. A workplan will be developed to coordinate existing Hardrock mining research and consider extending the watershed approach for AML characterization and cleanup through a broader range of hydrogeologic, climatic, and mining conditions. This planning process will include scientists from the Minerals Resources, Contaminant Biology, and Geographic Research and Applications Programs and will be completed during the planning period.

The TOXICS Program also sponsors the USGS Mine Drainage Activities web site, which fosters interdisciplinary communication and coordination; MDIG activities will increase formal coordination among USGS programs involved in mining contamination research (including the Energy Resources, Mineral Resources, and Contaminants Programs).

• Effect of Mercury on Aquatic Ecosystems ($650,000) - Recent dramatic increases in fish-consumption advisories that now are issued in 40 states demonstrate that mercury is a national concern. Aquatic ecosystems across the Nation are being studied to identify the controls on accumulation of mercury to toxic levels in the food web. Ecosystems are being studied that are affected by varied sources of mercury (mining, natural, and atmospheric sources), and have varying potential to convert mercury to its most toxic form, methylmercury.
  
  The value of USGS research to current regulatory and resource management activities under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act have been acknowledged formally by USEPA and others. Activities under this investigation have been coordinated loosely with other USGS mercury related research primarily in the Minerals Resources, Energy Resources, and Contaminant Biology Programs, and through a series of technical workshops since 1995. Currently, this investigation focuses on the cycling of methylmercury in aquatic ecosystems, and is directly coordinated with and complementary to the NAWQA Cycle II Topical Study on Mercury. Collaboration with the Minerals and Energy Programs addressing the role of natural geologic and mining sources continues to be a priority. Coordination with Contaminant Biology Program activities on the toxicological effects of methylmercury on the food web offers an opportunity.

• Emerging Contaminants in the Nation's Water Resources ($750,000) - New and more commonly used chemicals continually enter the environment, either during intended use (such as pesticides and fumigants), or via industrial, human, or animal wastes (such as detergents, fire retardants, plasticizers, fuel oxygenates, human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, and hormones). Some chemicals are hormonally or pharmaceutically active, but many are not monitored or regulated. New low detection-level methods are being developed, and an investigation of the potential for widespread contamination from these chemicals is being implemented through a national survey of susceptible streams and wells. The results will provide baseline information to managers, regulators and industry. Additional activities in collaboration with USEPA are evaluating the occurrence of these emerging wastewater contaminants in drinking water supplies.

This activity was initiated in 1998 through a TOXICS Program planning workshop attended by scientists from water and biology disciplines to coordinate laboratory methods development activities and organize systematic reconnaissance field tests. A second workshop is under planning for fiscal year 2002. Research priorities will be developed at this workshop in consultation with regulatory agencies concerned with potential drinking water contaminants, toxicological testing, and human activities that may be pathways for environmental contamination. Opportunities for direct collaborations with toxicological research conducted within the Contaminant Biology Program will be explored. Other major objectives of this workshop will be to identify equipment and laboratory facilities needs for maintaining USGS at the forefront of this important issue, and discussing issues related to the use and testing of research methods in USGS field investigations. Future activities will consider the potential ecological effects of these wastewater contaminants, and the co-occurrence of pathogens and potential antibiotic resistance. An investigation workplan will be completed within the 5-year planning period.

• Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative ($550,000) - Program scientists are working in collaboration with USGS biologists to quantify amphibian population declines and deformities and to determine potential causes. Amphibian monitoring is being conducted in seven regions to provide the first National assessment of the status of amphibian populations. Researchers are providing information on hydrology, climate, ambient water quality, and occurrence of contaminants in support of this national multi-agency Initiative. District hydrologists have been identified in each region to work hand-in-hand in the field with herpetologists. Research priorities are to expand coordination between hydrologists and herpetologists in exploring causal linkages between changes in amphibian populations and hydrologic causal variables. Tasks range from exploring fundamental monitoring and data-management issues to methods for analysis of causal linkages.
  
  
• Place-Based Studies Program ($1,100,000) - The TOXICS Program contributes expertise in contaminant transport and fate to these investigations of priority ecosystems that are threatened by development and other anthropogenic influences.

B. Partners and Customers

The TOXICS Program works in partnership with the Federal land management agencies, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Departments of Defense and Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other Federal agencies to ensure that priorities for science needs are coordinated. Representatives of these agencies are invited to participate in the program planning process, whereby research issues and priorities, as well as implementation strategies are developed. Results of TOXICS Program research are distributed via lectures and briefings at national labs, government agencies, universities and industry groups, at workshops, at national scientific meetings, in USGS reports, in scientific journals and books, and on the Internet. This exchange of information furthers the goals of these partnership agencies by providing them with relevant credible scientific information upon which defensible decisions on regulations, policy, and product development are made.

Program information on the environmental occurrence and persistence of alternative industrial compounds, as well as variations resulting from alternative-use practices, is useful for industry decision-making. In some cases, mutual interests have resulted in formal collaboration between program activities and industry, through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). Recent CRADAs have been with:

1. DuPont to develop new methods for measuring the concentration of new low application rate (16 sulfonylurea, sulfonamide, and imidazolinone) herbicides in water,
2. United Technologies Corporation to develop and evaluate the use of surface and borehole geophysics to monitor remediation at contaminated sites, and
3. American Petroleum Institute to investigate the behavior of MTBE in the unsaturated-zone and explain why MTBE is typically found at much higher concentrations than BTEX (the toxic components of regular gasoline) in shallow ground water beneath such spills.

Scientists from universities, other federal agencies, and industry provide an essential part of the Program's research teams. They provide specialized expertise and bring additional resources from other research entities that see collaborations with the Program as an opportunity for synergy. Since 1985, well over 100 student theses have been completed successfully at TOXICS Program research sites, including eight within the past year (2000) alone. Students benefit from field and related support provided at the Program's field laboratories, from access to technical advice and guidance from a range of specialists, and from the experience of participating in the planning and implementation of broad interdisciplinary research projects. Student training is an activity that makes a significant contribution to meeting the Nation's need for skilled environmental professionals, and to increasing students' awareness of the important and challenging environmental issues facing the Nation.

Information and a listing of TOXICS Program partners, collaborators and beneficiaries are available on the Internet at: http://toxics.usgs.gov/topics/faq/who_uses.html.

VI. Program Review and Quality of Products

The role and activities of the TOXICS Program were reviewed by the National Research Council and reported in Hazardous Materials in the Hydrologic Environment: The Role of the U.S. Geological Survey, (NRC, 1996). The report provided significant guidance with respect to Program role and directions which have prompted increased coordination with other agencies involved with environmental contamination, greater generalization of research to sites across the Nation, and increased emphasis on simulation modeling for decision support.

Objective-based investigations are guided by project reviews conducted through the project-planning and workplan-development process. This process, described above, starts at the initiation of each investigation and includes review by a committee comprised of both USGS and nonUSGS scientists. This review is organized by the Research Team coordinators and Program management and usually includes a site or field visit and technical meeting at which the investigation goals and approaches are presented and discussed. The investigation planning and workplan development process is repeated periodically for ongoing investigations as appropriate or when significant changes in research priorities or approaches are anticipated.

Research Team Coordinators submit annual reports to Program management for review. These reports include progress, significant accomplishments, publications, and stakeholder activities for the previous year. They also include a workplan for the following year that includes research priorities, planned activities, and funding requirements (including potential needs for base funding increases or one-time instrumentation, data-collection or equipment needs).

All Program research products undergo a peer-review process and approval by the Director before release to the public. Publication release requirements are documented on the Internet at: http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/publishing/Memos/.

Program contributions, which provide new scientific understanding and improve the state of the science, are targeted for publication in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and as such; undergo additional peer review through the journal. Approximately one third of Program publications are published in peer-reviewed journals. Among the other publications are USGS reports (that document datasets and models), papers in proceedings of professional meetings and university theses.

Program results also include simulation models (modeling software), which are documented and undergo the same USGS peer review and approval process as other publication products. Model programs are field-tested under a wide range of field conditions before approval and release. Models and related information are available on the Internet at: http://toxics.usgs.gov/topics/applications.html. Technical memoranda outlining USGS plans and requirements for development of modeling software are accessible on the Internet at:http://water.usgs.gov/admin/memo/.

Additional technical review is conducted for all Water Discipline activities by the 3 technical offices (Office of Ground Water, Office of Surface Water, and Office of Water-Quality). These Offices conduct technical reviews of ground-water, surface-water, and water-quality research activities at cost centers conducting water research activities every 3 years. These reviews are to ensure that all offices produce hydrologic data and information that meet high standards of quality, to assess overall strengths and weaknesses of the technical program, and to make recommendations for improvement. The reviews are conducted by review teams comprised of regional specialists (one specialist in each Region for ground water, surface water, and water quality); staff from the headquarters technical offices (Offices of Ground Water, Surface Water, and Water Quality); experts from other Districts and the National Research Program.

VII. Expertise Capabilities and Facilities

Increasing demands to maintain state-of-the-art laboratory methods for measurement of new and "emerging" contaminants at trace levels in multimedia environmental samples will require new laboratory facilities and analytical equipment. The needs to identify the presence of microbial contaminants (pathogens) associated with other "emerging" wastewater related contaminants currently under investigation will require an assessment of the limitations of existing facilities and equipment. Similarly, increasing needs for economical means to collect time-series data where rapid changes in geochemistry affect contaminant transport will require exploration of new sensor technologies.

A major means of generalizing the methods and knowledge gained from representative field investigations, either at point-source or nonpoint-source watershed scales, is development of statistical and process simulation models that facilitate explanation of similar problems elsewhere across the Nation. Modeling capabilities are needed that integrate analysis of contaminants that cross hydrologic compartments within the hydrologic cycle. Some examples include: statistical models that integrate data at local scales to address the large scale regional and watershed issues faced by resource managers, models that simulate processes across the subsurface unsaturated and saturated zones, models simulate contaminant movement between ground-water and surface-water systems, models that simulate contaminant movement through the hydrologic cycle or a watershed. These needs will require new approaches for coordinating development of hydrologic modeling methods and capabilities that enable advancement in interdisciplinary and multi-scale approaches.

VIII. References

Buxton, H.T., 2000, USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program, 2000: US Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-062-00, 4 p.

Kuwabara, J.S., F.H. Nichols, K.M. Kuivila, and Jeanne Dileo 1999, Understanding the Human Influence on the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary Ecosystem - The Toxic Substances Hydrology Program and USGS Place-based Studies Program Provide Complimentary Approaches and Results: in U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings of the Technical Meeting Charleston South Carolina March 8-12,1999--Volume 2 of 3--Contamination of Hydrologic Systems and Related Ecosystems, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigation Report 99-4018B, 482 p.

Morganwalp, D.W. and Buxton, H.T., editors, 1999a, U.S. Geological Survey Toxics Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings of the Technical Meeting, Charleston South Carolina, March 8-12, 1999--Volume 1 of 3--Contamination from Hardrock Mining: U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 99-4018A, 324 p.

Morganwalp, D.W. and Buxton, H.T., editors, 1999b, U.S. Geological Survey Toxics Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings of the Technical Meeting, Charleston South Carolina, March 8-12, 1999--Volume 2 of 3--Contamination of Hydrologic Systems and Related Ecosystems: U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 99-4018B, 482 p.

Morganwalp, D.W. and Buxton, H.T., editors, 1999c, U.S. Geological Survey Toxics Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings of the Technical Meeting, Charleston South Carolina, March 8-12, 1999-- Volume 3 of 3--Subsurface Contamination from Point Sources: U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 99-4018C, 845 p.

National Research Council, 2001, Future roles and opportunities for the U.S. Geological Survey: National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 179 p.

National Research Council, 1996, Hazardous Materials in the Hydrologic Environment: The Role of the U.S. Geological Survey: National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 109 p.

U.S. Geological Survey, 1999, Strategic Plan, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior, FY2000-FY2005: U.S. Geological Survey, 20 P.