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The URLs provided on this page are not comprehensive, but they provide a sampling of web sites that introduce trace elements and problems of trace element contamination and remediation.

USGS Web Sites:

http://co.water.usgs.gov/trace/index.html
Part of the National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAQWA), the National Analysis of Trace Elements Project studies trace elements in streams and ground water, stream and reservoir bed sediment, and fish and clam tissue across the United States.

http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/co115.htm#53353
This primer on environmental contaminants provides a background on irrigation-induced natural contaminants with a selected bibliography.

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcquality/9newscr9.html
http://www.usgs.gov/public/press/public_affairs/press_releases/pr900m.html
http://webserver.cr.usgs.gov/trace/pubs/circ1180_abs.html

News releases accompanying publication of USGS Circular 1180, abstract for the circular, and PDF file of complete paper.

http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/microbiological.html
http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/fightingcontamintation.html
http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/proj.bib/oremland.html
Bacteria may help remediate areas contaminated with selenium. Membranes used by the petroleum industry on marine waters of the North Sea may remove as much as 98% of sulfates and selenates.

http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/circ/circ1195/

WRD National Research Program Circular 1195 including a section selenium: rocks, ducks, microbes, and membranes.

http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/ofr00-416/

WRD report (and web page) on forecasting selenium discharges to the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary and ecological effects of a proposed San Luis drain extension.

http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/FS/FS-038-97/
http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/FS/FS-077-96/
USGS Factsheets highlight methods for identifying areas susceptible to irrigation-induced selenium contamination.

http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/access/bioavail/no_bay/
Website for "Metals in the Environment", a project about the San Francisco Bay and Delta, CA and the Clark Fork River, MT. See their example selenium forecast for the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/selenium/
Statistics on the sources and production of selenium, and its use in manufacturing.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/selenium/830498.pdf
A 1998 pdf primer on the production and uses of selenium and tellurium. Did you know selenium is a bi-product of copper refinement?

http://toxics.usgs.gov/
Home page for USGS studies of toxic substances in ground and surface water.

http://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects00/ca470.html
Geochemists in a Water Resources Division project in the Salton Sea and lower Colorado River areas of Imperial Valley investigate the transport and fate of selenium in wetlands.

http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/ressed/
http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/abstracts/wrir.99-4230.html
http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.080-98.html
These studies from Kansas document increasing concentration of selenium and other trace elements in reservoir bottom sediments over previous background levels.

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/factshts/15mersel.pdf
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/prodabs/abs4578.htm
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/prodabs/abs4583.htm
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/prodabs/abs4669.htm
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/prodabs/abs4993.htm
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/prodabs/ab298898/abs5001.htm
USGS Factsheet in portable document format and abstracts by scientists at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center explain the antagonistic and synergistic relationship between mercury and selenium in natural environments, trace element toxicity in waterfowl, and the relationships between selenium and other elements in wetlands.

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/1999/blubill/contamin.htm
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/1998/wetsympo/selenium.htm
Abstracts by scientists at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center address issues of arsenic and selenium contamination in the Garrison Reservoir area of North Dakota.

http://nm.water.usgs.gov/publications/abstracts/wrir96-4157.html
http://nm.water.usgs.gov/publications/abstracts/wrir98-4213.html

This reconnaissance investigation shows that water quality standards for trace element content were exceeded in some locations, and bottom sediments showed highly concentrated trace elements, including selenium, in northern New Mexico.

http://sd.water.usgs.gov/pubs/abstracts/wri90-4152.html
http://sd.water.usgs.gov/pubs/abstracts/wri90-4192.html

Trace element studies in water and sediments of the Angostura and Belle Fourche river basins in South Dakota.

http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/open-file-reports/ofr-97-0151/html/stpmw13.shtml
Selenium in Animas River linked to Mancos Shale outcrops in this Colorado drainage basin.

Other Web Sites:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts92.html
Toxicological profile of selenium by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Center for Disease Control.

http://www.ulib.org/webRoot/Books/National_Academy_Press_Books/irrigation/irrig013.htm
Abstract of National Academy Press publication on irrigation-induced contamination.

http://www.usbr.gov/niwqp/
Website of the National Irrigation Water Quality Program of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This is an inter-bureau program involving the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey. Contains a bibliography of DOI & USGS publications on selenium.

http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/dwh/c-ioc/selenium.html
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's factsheet on standards for selenium in drinking water.

http://www-wwrc.uwyo.edu/wrds/wsgs/hazards/selbib/selbib.html
http://www.ets.uidaho.edu/che470/se_info.htm

Wyoming State Geological Survey's selected bibliography of selenium plus internet resources on selenium.

http://www.cas.usf.edu//chemistry/info_research_resources/ies/biorem_selenium.htm
A compendium of selenium remediation techniques that use plants and microbes.

http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Highlights/1993/selenium-soil.html
Tetsu Tokunaga of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is using x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray fluorescence microprobe mapping to analyze redistribution of selenium in contaminated soil samples.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/web-elements/
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Se/key.html

An online periodic table of elements from the University of Sheffield and a page devoted to selenium.

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http://geology.wr.usgs.gov/wreg/env/links.html
Contact: Margaret A. Keller (mkeller@usgs.gov)
Western Region Energy Group–Environmental Studies

Modified: November 15, 2002

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