Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination

Locations of Toxics Program Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Investigations (Click on map for larger version) The USGS and its partners conducted a study to determine the diel variability of emerging contaminants in an effluent-dependent stream -- from the Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Investigation

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 Montana Tech of the University of Montana co-sponsor the Special Session Diurnal Biogeochemical Processes in Rivers, Lakes, and Shallow Groundwater at the 2009 GSA Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon, October 18-21, 2009
• 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 co-sponsors workshop on Diurnal (Diel) Cycling of Chemical Constituents in Surface Water and Related Media—Scientific and Regulatory Considerations, Trenton, New Jersey, December 12, 2008
• 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 joint 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

• Glypohosate and other pesticides in vernal pools and streams in Parks: Battaglin, W.A., Park Science (IN PRESS).
• Hydrodynamic control of phytoplankton loss to the benthos in an estuarine environment: Jones, N.L., Thompson, J.K., Arrigo, K.R., and Monismith, S.G., Limnology and Oceanography (IN PRESS).
• Implications of estuarine transport for water quality: Lucas, L.V., in Valle-Levinson, A., ed., Contemporary Issues in Estuarine Physics, New York, Cambridge University Press (IN PRESS).
• Hydrologic connectivity between landscapes and streams--Transferring reach and plot scale understanding to the catchment scale: Jencso, K.G., McGlynn, B.L., Gooseff, M.N., Wondzell, S.M., Bencala, K.E., and Marshall, L.A., Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2008WR007225 (IN PRESS).
• Reactive solute-transport simulation of pre-mining metal concentrations in mine-impacted catchments--Redwell Basin, Colorado, USA: Kimball, B.A., Runkel, R.L., Wanty, R.B., and Verplanck, P.L., Chemical Geology (IN PRESS).
• Application of iron and zinc isotopes to track the sources and mechanisms of metal loading in a mountain watershed: Borrok, D.M., Wanty, R.B., Ridley, W.I., Lamothe, P.J., Kimball, B.A., Verplank, P.L., and Runkel, R.L., Applied Geochemistry (IN PRESS).
• Uptake and retention of atmospheric Hg(II) by boreal forest plants: Graydon, J.A., St. Louis, V., Lindberg, S., Hintelmann, H., and Krabbenhoft, D.P., Environmental Science and Technology (IN PRESS).
• Mercury sources, distribution and bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean--Insights from data and models: Sunderland, E.M., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Moreau, J.W., Strode, S.A., and Landing, W.M., Global Biogeochemical Cycles, doi:10.1029/2008GB003425 (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, 2004-2006: Bradley, P.M., Chapelle, F.H., and Journey, C.A., U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5021, 9 p (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).
• 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, 102 p (IN PRESS).
• Metal contamination and post-remediation recovery in the Boulder River watershed, Jefferson County, Montana: Unruh, D.M., Church, S.E., Nimick, D.A., and Fey, D.L., Geochemistry--Exploration, Environment, Analysis (IN PRESS).
• Corbula amurensis: Thompson, J.K., in Invasive Species Compendium, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, CABI (IN PRESS).

Newly Published

• Mercury sources, distribution, and bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean--Insights from data and models: Sunderland, E.M., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Moreau, J.W., Strode, S.A., and Landing, W.M., 2009, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, v. 23, no. 2, p. 1-14, GB2010, doi:10.1029/2008GB003425.
• The occurrence of antibiotics in an urban watershed--From wastewater to drinking water: Watkinson, A.J., Murby, E.J., Kolpin, D.W., and Costanzo, S.D., 2009, Science of the Total Environment, v. 407, no. 8, p. 2,711-2,723, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.11.059.
• Mercury cycling in stream ecosystems--1. Water column chemistry and transport: Brigham, M.E., Wentz, D.A., Aiken, G.R., and Krabbenhoft, D.P., 2009, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es802694n (Advanced Web release).
• Mercury cycling in stream ecosystems--2. Benthic methylmercury production and bed sediment-pore water partitioning: Marvin-DiPasquale, M., Lutz, M.A., Brigham, M.E., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Aiken, G.R., Orem, W.H., and Hall, B.D., 2009, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es802698v (Advanced Web release).
• Mercury cycling in stream ecosystems--3. Trophic dynamics and methylmercury bioaccumulation: Chasar, L.C., Scudder, B.C., Stewart, A.R., Bell, A.H., and Aiken, G.R., 2009, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es8027567 (Advanced Web release).
• Mercury isotopic composition of hydrothermal systems in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field and Guaymas Basin sea-floor rift: Sherman, L.S., Blum, J.D., Nordstrom, D.K., McCleskey, R.B., Barkay, T., and Vetriani, C., 2009, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 279, no. 1-2, p. 86-96, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.12.032.
• Experimental removal of wetland emergent vegetation leads to decreased methylmercury production in surface sediment: Windham-Myers, L., Marvin-Dipasquale, M., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Agee, J.L., Cox, M.H., Heredia-Middleton, P., Coates, C., and Kakouros, E., 2009, Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, v. 114, G00C05, doi:10.1029/2008JG000815.
• Copper isotope fractionation in acid mine drainage: Kimball, B.E., Mathur, R., Dohnalkova, A.C., Wall, A.J., Runkel, R.L., and Brantley, S.L., 2009, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 73, no. 5, p. 1,247-1,263, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2008.11.035.
• Waste-indicator and pharmaceutical compounds in landfill-leachate-affected ground water near Elkhart, Indiana, 2000-2002: Buszka, P.M., Yeskis, D.J., Kolpin, D.W., Furlong, E.T., Zaugg, S.D., and Meyer, M.T., 2009, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, doi:10.1007/s00128-009-9702-z (Advanced Web release).
• Effects of the herbicide diuron on cordgrass (Spartina foliosa) reflectance and photosynthetic parameters: Williams, S.L., Carranza, A., Kunzelman, J., Datta, S., and Kuivila, K.M., 2009, Estuaries and Coasts, v. 32, no. 1, p. 146-157, doi:10.1007/s12237-008-9114-z.
• Effect of grain-coating mineralogy on nitrate and sulfate storage in the unsaturated zone: Reilly, T.J., Fishman, N.S., and Baehr, A.L., 2009, Vadose Zone Journal, v. 8, no. 1, p. 75-85, doi:10.2136/vzj2008.0053.
• Structural characterization of terrestrial bacteriogenic Mn oxides from Pinal Creek, AZ: Bargar, J.R., Fuller, C.C., Marcus, M.A., Brearley, A.J., Perez De la Rosa, M., Webb, S.M., and Caldwell, W.A., 2009, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 73, no. 4, p. 889-910, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2008.10.036.
• Biodegradation of 17β-Estradiol, Estrone and Testosterone in Stream Sediments : Bradley, P.M., Barber, L.B., Chapelle, F.H., Gray, J.L., Kolpin, D.W., and McMahon, P.B., 2009, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es802797j (Advanced Web release).
• Benthic nutrient sources to hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon: Kuwabara, J.S., Topping, B.R., Lynch, D.D., Carter, J.L., and Essaid, H.I., 2009, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, v. 28, no. 3, p. 516-524, doi:10.1897/08-207.1.
• Comparing wastewater chemicals, indicator bacteria concentrations, and bacterial pathogen genes as fecal pollution indicators: Haack, S.K., Duris, J.W., Fogarty, L.R., Kolpin, D.W., Focazio, M.J., Furlong, E.T., and Meyer, M.T., 2009, Journal of Environmental Quality, v. 38, no. 1, p. 248-258, doi:10.2134/jeq2008.0173.
• Wastewater effluent, combined sewer overflows, and other sources of organic compounds to Lake Champlain: Phillips, P.J., and Chalmers, A.T., 2009, Journal of the American Water Works Association, v. 45, no. 1, p. 45-57, JAWRA-07-0175-P, doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.2008.00288.x.
• Acid rock drainage and climate change: Nordstrom, D.K., 2009, Journal of Geochemical Exploration, v. 100, no. 2-3, p. 97-104, doi:10.1016/j.gexplo.2008.08.002.
• 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., Bove, D.J., Plumlee, G.S., and Runkel, R.L., 2009, Applied Geochemistry, v. 24, no. 2, p. 255-267, doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2008.11.014.
• Why are diverse relationships observed between phytoplankton biomass and transport time?: Lucas, L.V., Thompson, J.K., and Brown, L.R., 2009, Limnology and Oceanography, v. 54, no. 1, p. 381-390.
• 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., 2008, Journal of Chromatography A, v. 1210, no. 1, p. 8-18, doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2008.09.023.
• 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., 2008, Journal of Marine Systems, v. 75, no. 1-2, p. 70-86 doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2008.07.011.
• 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., 2008, Journal of Marine Systems, v. 74, no. 1-2, p. 153-166, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2007.12.006.
• Environmental factors affecting mercury in Camp Far West Reservoir, 2001-03: Alpers, C.N., Stewart, A.R., Saiki, M.K., Marvin-DiPasquale, M., Topping, B.R., Rider, K.M., Gallanthine, S.K., Kester, C.A., Rye, R.O., Antweiler, R.C., and DeWild, J.F., 2008, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5008, 358 p.
• Occurrence of organic wastewater compounds in the Tinkers Creek watershed and two other tributaries to the Cuyahoga River, Northeast Ohio: Tertuliani, J.S., Alvarez, D.S., Furlong, E.T., Meyer, M.T., Zaugg, S.D., and Koltun, G.F., 2008, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5173, 60 p.
• Fate of consumer-product chemicals in the subsurface environment--25 years of research on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA: Barber, L.B., 2008, in Trefry, M.G., ed., Groundwater Quality 2007--Securing Groundwater Quality in Urban and Industrial Environments: International Association of Hydrological Sciences IAHS Redbook, IAHS Publ. 324, p. 126-132.
• Subsurface fate and transport of sulfamethoxazole, 4-nonylphenol, and 17Β-estradiol: Barber, L.B., Meyer, M.T., LeBlanc, D.R., Kolpin, D.W., Bradley, P.M., Chapelle, F.H., and Rubio, F., 2008, in Trefry, M.G., ed., Groundwater Quality 2007--Securing Groundwater Quality in Urban and Industrial Environments: International Association of Hydrological Sciences IAHS Redbook, IAHS Publ. 324, p. 133-139.
• 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.