Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination

Locations of Toxics Program Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Investigations (Click on map for larger version) An abandoned structure and waste-rock pile from the Silverledge Mine adjacent to Mineral Creek, Colo -- from the Abandoned Hard-Rock Mining Photo Gallery

The Toxics Program conducts watershed- and regional-scale investigations of legacy, current, and emerging contaminants affecting aquatic ecosystems from common types of nonpoint and distributed point-source contamination. More about watershed- and regional-scale contamination investigations

Watershed Contamination from Hard-Rock Mining

Pesticide Contamination in Varied Pesticide-Use Settings

Emerging Contaminants in the Environment

Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems

Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative

Priority Ecosystem Studies

Complete listing of watershed and regional scale investigations and projects >>

Other Watershed- and Regional-Scale Investigations

• Fate of Organic Compounds in River Systems, Lower Calcasieu River, Louisiana [Completed]
• Management Systems Evaluation Areas, Upper Midwest (Corn Belt) [Completed]
• Nonpoint-Source Ground-Water Contamination in Relation to Land Use [Completed]
• National Irrigation Water Quality Program (NIWQP) [Completed]

Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Information

• Index of Bibliographies from Point-Source Investigations
• Index of Photo Galleries for Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Investigations
• Crosscutting Topics Related to Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination
• Agricultural Chemicals — Occurrence and fate of chemicals used for agriculture
• Contaminant Occurrence Studies — Large-scale studies of the occurrence and distribution of new contaminants in the environment
• Nutrients — Fate and effects of nutrients in the environment
• Surface-Water Contaminant Transport — Research on the transport and fate of contaminants in surface water
• Unsaturated Zone — Contaminant transport and fate in the unsaturated zone
• Selected Fact Sheets on Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination
• Water quality in the Blue River Basin, Kansas City metropolitan area, Missouri and Kansas, July 1998 to October 2004: USGS Fact Sheet 2006-3103.
• Wastewater chemicals in Colorado's streams and ground water: USGS Fact Sheet 2004-3127.
• Trends in the water budget of the Mississippi River basin, 1949-1997: USGS Fact Sheet 2005-3020.
• Is septic waste affecting drinking water from shallow domestic wells along the Platte River in eastern Nebraska?: USGS Fact Sheet 072-03.
• Linking selenium sources to ecosystems--San Francisco Bay-Delta model: USGS Fact Sheet 2004-3091.
• Water quality of the Boulder Creek watershed, Colorado: USGS Fact Sheet 043-03.
• Mercury in stream ecosystems--New studies initiated by the U.S. Geological Survey: USGS Fact Sheet 016-03.
• Occurrence of antibiotics in water from fish hatcheries: USGS Fact Sheet 120-02.
• Glacial ice cores reveal a record of natural and anthropogenic atmospheric mercury deposition for the last 270 years: USGS Fact Sheet FS-051-02.
• Pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants in U.S. streams: USGS Fact Sheet FS-027-02.
• Malformed frogs in Minnesota--An update: USGS Fact Sheet FS-043-01.
• Nitrogen in the Mississippi Basin--Estimating sources and predicting flux to the Gulf of Mexico: USGS Fact Sheet 135-00.
• Mercury contamination from historic gold mining in California: USGS Fact Sheet FS-061-00.
• Discharge of herbicides from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico, 1991-97: USGS Fact Sheet FS-163-98.
• Occurrence of cotton pesticides in surface water of the Mississippi Embayment: USGS Fact Sheet FS-022-98.
• Herbicides in rain fall across the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, 1990-91: USGS Fact Sheet FS-181-97.
• Herbicides in Midwestern reservoir outflows, 1992-93: USGS Fact Sheet FS-134-98.
• Herbicides in ground water of the Midwest--A regional study of shallow aquifers, 1991-94: USGS Fact Sheet FS-076-98.
• A reconnaissance for sulfonylurea herbicides in waters of the Midwestern USA: An example of collaboration between the public and private sectors: USGS Fact Sheet FS-046-98.
• Methods to identify areas susceptible to irrigation-induced selenium contamination in the Western United States: USGS Fact Sheet FS-O38-97.
• Source characterization of disinfection byproduct precursors in two Arkansas water-supply reservoirs: USGS Fact Sheet 118-97.
• Agricultural chemicals in Iowa's ground water, 1982-95 -- What are the trends: USGS Fact Sheet FS-116-97.
• Are walleye from Lake Roosevelt contaminated with mercury?: USGS Fact Sheet FS-102-97.
• Vulnerability of public drinking water supplies in New Jersey to pesticides: USGS Fact Sheet FS-165-96.
• Using Geochemical and Statistical Tools to Identify Irrigated Areas that Might Contain High Selenium Concentrations in Surface Water: USGS Fact Sheet FS-O77-96.
• Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems: USGS Fact Sheet FS-216-95.

Meetings and Conferences

• USGS and Colorado State University co-sponsor EmCon2009-2nd International Conference on Occurrence, Fate, Effects, and Analysis of Emerging Contaminants in the Environment, Fort Collins, Colorado, August 4-7, 2009
• USGS is co-sponsoring the short course Environmental Fate and Effects of Emerging Contaminants at the SETAC North America 29th Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida, November 16-20, 2008
• USGS and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are cosponsoring the special session A Celebration of Soil Science, Solute Transport, and National-Scale Water-Quality Research: In Honor of Jacob Rubin at the 2008 Joint Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas, October 5-9, 2008

New Publications

Upcoming Publications

• Comparison of wastewater chemicals, bacteria concentrations, and bacterial pathogen genes as indicators of fecal pollution: Haack, S.K., Duris, J.W., Fogarty, L.R., Kolpin, D.W., Focazio, M.J., Meyer, M.T., and Furlong, E.T., Journal of Environmental Quality (IN PRESS).
• Acid rock drainage and climate change: Nordstrom, D.K., Journal of Geochemical Exploration, doi:10.1016/j.gexplo.2008.08.002 (IN PRESS).
• 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).
• The effect of grain-coating mineralogy on the storage and transport of nitrate and sulfate in the unsaturated zone: Reilly, T.J., Fishman, N.S., and Baehr, A.L., Vadose Zone Journal (IN PRESS).
• Wastewater effluent, combined sewer overflows, and other sources of organic compounds to Lake Champlain: Phillips, P.J., and Chalmers, A.T., Journal of the American Water Works Association (IN PRESS).
• Multi-residue method for the analysis of 85 current-use and legacy pesticides in bed and suspended sediments: Smalling, K.L., and Kuivila, K.M., Journal of Chromatography A (IN PRESS).
• Influence of plankton mercury dynamics and trophic pathways on mercury concentrations of top predator fish of a mining-impacted reservoir: Stewart, A.R., Saiki, M.K., Kuwabara, J.S., Alpers, C.N., Marvin DiPasquale, M., and Krabbenhoft, D.P., Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, v. 65 (IN PRESS).
• The use of fluoride as a natural tracer and the relationship to geologic features--Examples from the Animas River Watershed, San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Bove, D.J., Walton-Day, K., and Kimball, B.A., Geochemistry--Exploration, Environment, and Analysis (IN PRESS).
• A comparison of methyl mercury production and distribution in sediments of the Congaree and Edisto River Basins, South Carolina: Chapelle, F.H., Journey, C.A., and Bradley, P.M., U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report (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).
• Topographic controls on hillslope-riparian-stream water table continuity in a set of nested catchments, Northern Rocky Mountains, Montana: Jencso, K., McGlynn, B., Gooseff , M.N., Bencala, K.E., and Wondzell, S.M., Water Resources Research (IN PRESS).
• Shallow water processes govern system-wide phytoplankton bloom dynamics--A modeling study: Lucas, L.V., Koseff, J.R., Monismith, S.G., and Thompson, J.K., Journal of Marine Systems, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2008.07.011 (Corrected Proof) (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).
• Metal contamination and post-remediation recovery in the Boulder River watershed, Jefferson County, Montana: Unruh, D.M., Church, S.E., Fey, D.L., and Nimick, D.A., Geochemistry--Exploration, Environment, Analysis (IN PRESS).
• Naturally acidic surface and ground waters draining porphyry-related mineralized areas of the Southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado and New Mexico: Verplanck, P.L., Nordstrom, D.K., Plumlee, G.S., Bove, D.J., and Runkel, R.L., Applied Geochemistry (IN PRESS).
• Fate of consumer product chemicals in the subsurface environment--25 Years of research on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA: Barber, L.B., in Hill, M.C., ed., Groundwater Quality 2007--Securing Groundwater Quality in Urban and Industrial Environments: International Association of Hydrological Sciences IAHS Redbook (IN PRESS).
• Corbula amurensis: Thompson, J.K., in Invasive Species Compendium, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, CABI (IN PRESS).
• Shallow water processes govern system-wide phytoplankton bloom dynamics--A field study: Thompson, J.K., Koseff, J.R., Monismith, S.G., and Lucas, L.V., Journal of Marine Systems, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2007.12.006 (Corrected proof) (IN PRESS).
• Subsurface fate and transport of 4-nonylphenol, 17Β-estradiol, and sulfamethoxazole: Barber, L.B., Meyer, M.T., LeBlanc, D.R., Kolpin, D.W., Bradley, P.M., Chapelle, F.H., and Rubio, F., in Hill, M.C., ed., Groundwater Quality 2007--Securing Groundwater Quality in Urban and Industrial Environments: International Association of Hydrological Sciences IAHS Redbook (IN PRESS).

Newly Published

• A national reconnaissance of pharmaceuticals and other organic wastewater contaminants in the United States--II. Untreated drinking water sources: Focazio, M.J., Kolpin, D.W., Barnes, K.K., Furlong, E.T., Meyer, M.T., Zaugg, S.D., Barber, L.B., and Thurman, E.M., 2008, Science of the Total Environment, v. 402, no. 2-3, p. 201-216, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.02.021.
• A national reconnaissance of pharmaceuticals and other organic wastewater contaminants in the United States--I. Groundwater: Barnes, K.K., Kolpin, D.W., Furlong, E.T., Zaugg, S.D., Meyer, M.T., and Barber, L.B., 2008, Science of the Total Environment, v. 402, no. 2-3, p. 192-200, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.04.028.
• A multi-disciplinary approach to the removal of emerging contaminants in municipal wastewater treatment plans in New York State, 2003-2004: Phillips, P.J., Stinson, B., Zaugg, S.D., Furlong, E.T., Kolpin, D.W., Esposito, K.M., Bodniewicz, B., Pape, R., and Anderson, J., 2008, Clearwaters, v. 38, no. 3, p. 48-59.
• 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, trace elements and organic constituents in atmospheric fine particulate matter, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA--A combined approach to sampling and analysis: Kolker, A., Engle, M.A., Orem, W.H., Bunnell, J.E., Lerch, H.E., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Olson, M.L., and McCord, J.D., 2008, Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, v. 32, no. 3, p. 279-293, doi:10.1111/j.1751-908X.2008.00913.x.
• Bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals and other anthropogenic waste indicators in earthworms from agricultural soil amended with biosolid or swine manure: Kinney, C.A., Furlong, E.T., Kolpin, D.W., Burkhardt, M.R., Zaugg, S.D., Werner, S.L., Bossio, J.P., and Benotti, M.J., 2008, Environmental Science and Technology, v. 42, no. 6, p. 1863-1870, doi:10.1021/es702304c.
• Chemical contaminants, health indicators, and reproductive biomarker responses in fish from rivers in the Southeastern United States: Hinck, J., Blazer, V., Denslow, N., Echols, K., Gale, R., Wieser, C., May, T., Ellersieck, M., Coyle, J., and Tillitt, D., 2008, Science of the Total Environment, v. 390, no. 2-3, p. 538-557, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.10.026.
• Comparison of total mercury and methylmercury cycling at five sites using the small watershed approach: Shanley, J.B., Mast, A.M., Campbell, D.H., Aiken, G.R., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Hunt, R.J., Walker, J.F., Schuster, P.F., Chalmers, A., Aulenbach, B.T., Peters, N.E., Marvin-DiPasquale, M., Clow, D.W., and Shafer, M.M., 2008, Environmental Pollution, v. 154, no. 1, p. 143-154, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.12.031.
• Complex seasonal patterns of primary producers at the land–sea interface: Cloern, J.E., and Jassby, A.D., 2008, Ecology Letters, doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01244.x (Advanced Web release).
• Exposure of insects and insectivorous birds to metals and other elements from abandoned mine tailings in three Summit County drainages, Colorado: Custer, C.M., Yang, C., Crock, J.G., Shearn-Bochsler, V., Smith, K.S., and Hageman, P.L., 2008, doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0346-y (Advanced Web release).
• Impairment of the reproductive potential of male fathead minnows by environmentally relevant exposures to 4-nonylphenol: Schoenfuss, H.L., Bartell, S.E., Bistodeau, T.B., Cediel, R.A., Grove, K.J., Zintek, L., Lee, K.E., and Barber, L.B., 2008, Aquatic Toxicology, v. 86, no. 1, p. 91-98, doi:10.1016/j.aquatox.2007.10.004.
• Influence of natural dissolved organic carbon on the bioavailability of mercury to a freshwater alga: Gorski, P.R., Armstrong, D.E., Hurley, J.P., and Krabbenhoft, D.P., 2008, Environmental Pollution, v. 154, no. 1, p. 116-123 doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.12.004.
• 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.
• A note on the effect of wind waves on vertical mixing in Franks Tract, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California: Jones, N.L., Thompson, J.K., and Monismith, S.G., 2008, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, v. 6, no. 2, p. article 4.
• The occurrence of glyphosate, atrazine, and other pesticides in vernal pools and adjacent streams in Washington, DC, Maryland, Iowa, and Wyoming, 2005–2006: Battaglin, W.A., Rice, K.C., Focazio, M.J., Salmons, S., and Barry, R.X., 2008, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0435-y (Advanced Web release).
• Primary production and carrying capacity of former salt ponds after reconnection to San Francisco Bay: Thébault, J., Schraga, T.S., Cloern, J.E., and Dunleavy, E.G., 2008, Wetlands, v. 28, no. 3, p. 841-851, doi:10.1672/07-190.1.
• Utilization of protein expression profiles as indicators of environmental impairment of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) from the Shenandoah River, Virginia, USA: Ripley, J., Iwanowicz, L., Blazer, V., and Foran, C., 2008, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, v. 27, no. 8, p. 1756-1767, doi:10.1897/07-588.1.
• Wetlands as principal zones of methylmercury production in southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico region: Hall, B.D., Aiken, G.R., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Marvin-DiPasquale, M., and Swarzenski, C.M., 2008, Environmental Pollution, v. 154, no. 1, p. 124-134, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.12.017.
• What was the groundwater quality before mining in a mineralized region? Lessons from the Questa Project: Nordstrom, D.K., 2008, Journal of Geosciences, v. 12, no. 2, p. 139-149.