USGS Oregon Water Science Center

Welcome to the home page for the U.S. Geological Survey Oregon Water Science Center. This is your gateway to a wealth of information on surface water, groundwater, and water quality in Oregon and the Nation. The Oregon Water Science Center provides water data and interpretation of data to Federal, State, and local agencies; Tribes; and the public. Our data and study results are widely used to manage Oregon's water resources for the benefit of both people and our environment. We hope that you will find this Website informative and useful.

Streamflow Conditions in Oregon

USGS Oregon WSC Highlights

USGS Study Publishes Maps of Depth to Water and Water-Level Elevation in the Portland Area

Portland, Oregon, looking east toward Mount Hood (Photograph courtesy of Travel Portland)

The USGS Oregon Water Science Center has recently completed a study that determined the configuration of the water table in the Portland area. Depth to water is typically a consideration in construction of buildings, roads, and infrastructure; well drilling; evaluation of aquifer susceptibility; and the design of monitoring programs to determine the extent and severity of possible aquifer contamination. Recent and planned construction of new infrastructures for diverting stormwater runoff has raised concerns regarding the protection of groundwater resources in the Portland area and highlighted the need for comprehensive information about the configuration of the water table.

Underground injection control (UIC) systems (for example, stormwater injection systems, sumps, and drywells) are used extensively in the Portland area to divert stormwater runoff into the subsurface. Additional UIC systems are expected to be constructed, and stormwater runoff also will be diverted to other types of stormwater drainage systems such as vegetated swales, pervious pavement, disconnected downspouts, and other diversion methods that are designed to allow for the infiltration of stormwater. The goals are to manage surface runoff and to protect the quality of water entering rivers, streams, and the groundwater flow system. Information is needed regarding the configuration of the water table to help determine the appropriate use of these diversion methods to meet regulatory requirements and to minimize the effect on groundwater quality and groundwater levels. To help provide this information, the USGS, in cooperation with the City of Portland, City of Gresham, Clackamas County’s Water Environment Services, and Multnomah County began a study in 2003 to determine the configuration of the water table in the Portland area.

Read the report from this study

USGS Study of Upper Klamath Lake Links Circulation Patterns and Water Quality

Summer algae blooms in Upper Klamath Lake create water-quality conditions that are stressful for fish. (Photograph by Mary Lindenberg, U.S. Geological Survey, September 26, 2006.)

Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow lake in southern Oregon, just east of the Cascades. Land use changes in the basin during the 19^th and 20^th centuries led to increased inputs of sediments and nutrients to the lake, creating an ideal environment for the proliferation of the blue-green alga Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. Extensive annual blooms of this alga through the summer and subsequent bloom declines create conditions that are detrimental to the well being of fish that live in the lake, including the endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers. These conditions include large daily fluctuations of dissolved oxygen and pH, as well as occasionally high amounts of un-ionized ammonia. Fish die-offs have occurred during and following extended periods of oxygen depletion, either because of the low dissolved oxygen or disease epidemics resulting from stressed fish crowding together while seeking refuge from the unfavorable conditions.

The extended periods of oxygen depletion have been more severe in the northern part of Upper Klamath Lake than in areas of similar depth throughout the rest of the lake, suggesting that circulation patterns affect the distribution and severity of unfavorable water-quality conditions. A recent USGS Oregon Water Science Center study, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, used hydrologic, water-quality, and meteorological data collected continuously since 2002, as well as current velocity profiles and other data, to model lake circulation and heat transport. The model used is called UnTRIM, which is a three-dimensional hydrodynamic and constituent transport model.

Water in Upper Klamath Lake circulates clockwise in two gyres owing to the influence of prevailing westerly to northwesterly winds and the configuration of the lake basin, but circulation occasionally reverses when winds blow from the southeast for extended periods. Current speed generally fluctuates between 0 and 4 inches per second over most of the lake, which averages less than 10 feet in depth but has a narrow, deep trench as much as 40 feet deep along the western shore. Water in the trench moves faster than elsewhere, typically exceeding 8 inches per second.

The study found that water exiting the northern end of the trench had two components: a surface component that flows toward the southern part of the lake and a deep component that flows into the northern part of the lake, which is prime habitat for endangered suckers. Under certain conditions the deeper component exits the trench with a very low dissolved oxygen content, which is stressful to fish. This is because light does not penetrate to the deeper water, so there is no oxygen-producing photosynthesis, and oxygen-consuming processes such as algal respiration and decay, and sediment oxygen demand predominate. Why the oxygen depletion persists when the deeper water exits the trench and travels through shallow areas where photosynthesis should occur, though, is unknown. Explanations might be that algae entrained in the deeper water are either not as healthy as the more buoyant colonies in the surface water or that they have settled out of the water altogether. Answers to this question await further study.

Read the report from this study at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2008/5076/.

Read about other USGS Oregon Water Science Center Klamath Basin studies at http://or.water.usgs.gov/klamath/.

Recent Publications

Assessment of Eutrophication in the Lower Yakima River Basin, Washington, 2004–07 , by Daniel R. Wise, U.S. Geological Survey; Marie L. Zuroske, formerly with South Yakima Conservation District; Kurt D. Carpenter and Richard L. Kiesling, U.S. Geological Survey

Organic Compounds in Clackamas River Water Used for Public Supply near Portland, Oregon, 2003–05, by Kurt D. Carpenter and Gordon McGehee

Hydrologic and Water-Quality Conditions During Restoration of the Wood River Wetland, Upper Klamath River Basin, Oregon, 2003–05, by Kurt D. Carpenter, Daniel T. Snyder, John H. Duff, Frank J. Triska, Karl K. Lee, Ronald J. Avanzino, and Steven Sobieszczyk

Effect of Agricultural Practices on Hydrology and Water Chemistry in a Small Irrigated Catchment, Yakima River Basin, Washington, by Kathleen A. McCarthy and Henry M. Johnson

Tritium/Helium-3 Apparent Ages of Shallow groundwater, Portland Basin, Oregon, 1997–98, by Stephen R. Hinkle

View the complete list of 2008-09 Oregon Water Science Center publications

Of Current Interest

Quality of Water from Domestic Wells in the United States

Substantially elevated levels of nitrate occur in domestic wells in agricultural areas across much of the U.S.

A recent study from the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the USGS assessed water-quality conditions for about 2,100 domestic wells across the United States. As many as 219 properties and contaminants, including pH, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, radon, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds, were measured. Fecal indicator bacteria and additional radionuclides were analyzed for a smaller number of wells. The large number of contaminants assessed and the broad geographic coverage of the present study provides a foundation for an improved understanding of the quality of water from the major aquifers tapped by domestic supply wells in the United States.

The results of this study are described in two USGS publications, including an overview of the study findings (Circular 1332) and a detailed technical report on data sources, analyses, and results (Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5227). Also available are two related articles in the Water Well Journal of the National groundwater Association that briefly summarize USGS study findings and provide general information on domestic well maintenance, siting, and testing.

Find out more about this study and about the Nation’s groundwater quality.

A New Source of Methylmercury Entering the Pacific Ocean

Tuna harvested in the Pacific Ocean account for more than one-third of the methylmercury ingested by humans in the United States (NOAA photo).

A USGS scientist and his university colleagues have discovered a new source of methylmercury entering the waters of the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Consumption of ocean fish and shellfish account for over 90 percent of human methylmercury exposure in the United States, and tuna harvested in the Pacific Ocean account for 40 percent of this total exposure. Given the obvious importance of marine food webs to human methylmercury exposure, scientists were still trying to answer the question: where do fish, such as Pacific Ocean tuna, acquire their methylmercury? The findings of these scientists published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, might be a major step forward toward solving this mystery.

Scientists have known for some time that mercury deposited from the atmosphere to freshwater ecosystems can be transformed (methylated) into a highly toxic form of mercury called methylmercury, given the right conditions. Methylmercury rapidly accumulates up the food chain to levels that can cause serious health concerns for people and wildlife that frequently eat fish. In contrast to the growing knowledge base on the processes leading to the production of methylmercury in freshwater ecosystems, very little is known about the sources of methylmercury in marine systems. Filling this information gap has been challenging scientists for years.

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