Highlights of our latest research findings, and examples of application to real problems.

2012

• Findings Suggest VOCs May Help Explain Radionuclide Transport

  ---

• Hormones in Land-Applied Biosolids Could Affect Aquatic Organisms

  ---

• Antibiotics in Groundwater Change Bacterial Ecology

---

• New Approach for Evaluating Fish Metal Toxicity

---

• Evaluating Acid Mine Drainage Cleanup Strategies

---

• Pyrethroid Insecticide Contamination of Streams Increases with Urbanization

---

• Improvements in Wastewater Treatment Reduces Endocrine Disruption in Fish

---

• USGS Publishes its First Environmental Health Science Strategy

---

• New Knowledge on the Fate and Transport of Emerging Contaminants in Rivers

2011

• Sometimes the Question Is "Who Isn't Living There?"

---

• Antibiotics in Groundwater Affect Natural Bacteria

---

• Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in the Slick Scum that Covers Stones in Streams

---

• Chemical Geology Highlights Importance of Diel Processes in Rivers and Lakes

---

• Do Natural Processes Mitigate Contamination from Landfill Leachate?

2010

• Evidence of Endocrine Disruption Unexpectedly Found in Minnesota Lakes

---

• Estrogenic Chemicals from Plants and Fungi Found in Iowa Streams

---

• Mixtures of Pesticides Detected in Crab Embryos

---

• Understudied Fungicides Common in U.S. Streams Draining Agricultural Land

---

• Measuring Aquifer Properties at Contaminated Sites without Interrupting Remediation

---

• Tools to Define Pre-Mining Water-Quality Restoration Targets

---

• Algal Blooms Consistently Produce Complex Mixtures of Cyanotoxins and Co-Occur with Taste-and-Odor Causing Compounds in 23 Midwestern Lakes

---

• Are Pyrethroid Insecticides in Our Streams?

---

• Antidepressants in Stream Waters! Are They in the Fish Too?

---

• Manufacturing Facilities Release Pharmaceuticals to the Environment

2009

• Coatings on Sediment Grains Affect Nitrate Storage and Transport

---

• Do Combined Sewer Overflows Increase or Decrease Wastewater-Related Chemicals in Receiving Waters?

---

• Are Fecal Indicator Bacteria Effective Indicators of Chemical and Pathogenic Contaminants Associated with Human and Animal Waste?

---

• Hormones Degrade in the Environment!

---

• Some Ecosystems will Respond to Reductions in Mercury Emissions

---

• Mercury from Yellowstone's Geysers

---

• New Approach to Evaluating Selenium Toxicity in the Environment

---

• Fish in Some Streams Accumulate Mercury

---

• USGS Contributes to the Design of a Proposed National Mercury Monitoring Network (MercNet)

---

• A New Source of Methylmercury Entering the Pacific Ocean

2008

• Measuring How Nitrogen Transforms in Groundwater

---

• Clues to High Mercury Along the Gulf Coast

---

• Improved Simulation of Contamination in Fractured Rock

---

• Visualizing Contamination Pathways in the Subsurface

---

• Can We Use Phytoplankton in Coastal Waters as an Indicator of Global Climate Change?

---

• Mercury Found to Migrate Horizontally from Landfill

---

• Tackling Fish Endocrine Disruption

---

• Pesticides are Detected in Vernal Pools in Parks and Wildlife Refuges

---

• Measuring Antidepressants, Fungicides, and Insecticides in the Environment

---

• Detergents in Streams May Just Disappear

---

• Emerging Contaminants Targeted in a Reconnaissance of Ground Water and Untreated Drinking-Water Sources

---

• Biosolids, Animal Manure, and Earthworms: Is There a Connection?

---

• Fish Exposed to Daily Cycles of Dissolved Metals Show Lower Mortality Rates

---

• Zinc and Phosphate Come Back to Haunt Aquifer

2007

• Detecting Amphibian-Killing Fungus Helps Scientists Study Amphibian Declines

---

• Climate-Driven Ocean Changes Affect Estuaries: Pacific Ocean Cooling Triggers Phytoplankton Blooms in San Francisco Bay

---

• USGS Science Featured in a Special Issue of Applied Geochemistry on Contamination from Oil Production

---

• Hydrogen Measured in a New Test for Determining Subsurface Microbiological Activity at Contamination Sites

---

• Wastewater Indicators Shown to Degrade in Streams

---

• New Report Presents a Framework for Assessing the Sustainability of Monitored Natural Attenuation

---

• Endocrine Disruption Found in Fish Exposed to Municipal Wastewater

---

• Widespread Accumulations of Natural Perchlorate in Southwestern Soils

---

• What Mobilizes Arsenic in Ground Water?

---

• Mercury Concentrations in Streams Found to Go Through Daily Cycles

---

• Streamflow and Nutrient Delivery from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico

2006

• Household Chemicals and Drugs Found in Biosolids from Wastewater Treatment Plants

  ---

• Biofilms in Streams Help Create Daily Variations in Metal Concentrations

  ---

• Monitoring Volatile Organic Compounds in Ground Water with Diffusion Samplers

---

• New Model Allows for More Accurate Simulation of Tritium Movement in the Unsaturated Zone

---

• How Do Contaminants Mix at the Confluence of Streams

---

• Challenging a Paradigm: MTBE Shown to Degrade to TBA Without Microorganisms

---

• Pharmaceuticals Found in Soil Irrigated with Reclaimed Water

---

• New Version of NAS (Natural Attenuation Software) Available

---

• Are Pharmaceuticals in Your Watershed? Understanding the Fate of Pharmaceuticals and Other Contaminants in Watersheds

---

• RDX Biodegradation Under Metal-Reducing Conditions

---

• Decades Required for Natural Processes to Clean Wastewater-Contaminated Ground Water

---

• Book Chapter on Exposure Modeling and Monitoring of Human Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

  ---

• New Information on the Long-Term Fate of Ammonium in Ground Water

  ---

• Microorganisms Degrade MTBE Even at Winter Ground-Water Temperatures

  ---

• Does NDMA Biodegrade at Ground-Water Recharge Facilities?

  ---

• Glyphosate Found in Wastewater Discharged to Streams

  ---

2005

• USGS Patents Bioreactors that Treat Nitrate and Methyl Bromide Contamination

  ---

• A Decade of Research on the Occurrence of Triazine Herbicides in the Environment Leads to a Unique Summary

---

• Microscopic Phytoplankton Can Cause Big Problems for Estuaries

---

• Tracing Wastewater - Using Unique Compounds to Identify Sources of Contamination

---

• Biodynamic Model is Unraveling the Complexities of Metal Bioaccumulation from Contaminated Sediments

---

• A Tool for Predicting the Effect of Invasive Species on Aquatic Food Webs

  ---

• Importance and Causes of Daily Variation in Metal Concentrations in Streams

  ---

• USGS Develops Geophysical Methods to Improve Remediation Monitoring and Site Characterization

  ---

• Ground-Water Recharge Affects Fate of Petroleum Contaminant Plumes

  ---

• Multidisciplinary Approach to Remediating Watersheds Contaminated from Abandoned Mine Lands

  ---

• New Microorganism Discovered that Survives on Arsenic in an Extremely Harsh Environment

  ---

• Desert Plants Reveal Contaminant Transport Pathways

  ---

• New Model Improves Understanding of the Transport of Carbon Isotopes in the Unsaturated-Zone

  ---

• Predicting Plume Growth Rates - A Simple Method for Calculating Growth Rates of Petroleum Plumes

  ---

• Dr. Samuel N. Luoma Receives 2004 Presidential Rank Award

  ---

• Special Edition of "Environmental Geosciences" Explores Impacts of Oil and Gas Production on the Environment

  ---

• USGS Mobile Atmospheric Mercury Laboratory Makes an Impact

  ---

• USGS Patents the Multifunction Bedrock-Aquifer Transportable Testing Tool (BAT³)

  ---

• National Fish Mercury Model Available On-Line

2004

• USGS Scientists Contribute to New Book on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

  ---

• USGS Scientists Develop New Method to Measure Pharmaceuticals in Water

  ---

• Nitrogen Isotope Study Answers Questions about the Transport of Nutrients in Streams

  ---

• OSTP Report on Methylmercury in the Gulf of Mexico

  ---

• USGS Studies the Natural Recovery of an Organotin Spill

  ---

• Land-Use Activities Release Naturally Occurring Arsenic

  ---

• New Method for Assessing Bed Sediment Contamination

  ---

• History and Ecology of Chloroethene Biodegradation–A Review

  ---

• New Report on Science for Hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico

  ---

• The Changing Face of Microbial Communities in Contaminant Plumes
  

  ---

• USGS Develops New Field Method for Detecting Chromium VI in Ground Water

  ---

• Using Oxygen to Enhance Biodegradation of Contaminants – Lessons Learned

  ---

• USGS Scientists Contribute to the Landmark "Treatise on Geochemistry"

  ---

• USGS Scientist Receives Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award

  ---

• Developing Methods to Measure New Contaminants in Aquatic Environments

2003

• Veterinary Medicines in the Environment

  ---

• Using Plants To Detect Tritium Contamination

  ---

• Improving Cleanup of Contamination from Oil and Gas Production

  ---

• Software Provides Estimates of How Long it Will Take for Remediation Efforts to Achieve Their Goals

  ---

• High Nitrate in the Desert? What's Going On?

  ---

• Daily Variation of Metals in Streams Can Confound Scientific Studies

  ---

• New Diffusion Samplers Track Contamination Entering Lakes and Ponds

  ---

• Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common

  ---

• Toxics Program Scientists Recognized in 2003

  ---

• New Book on Soil Analysis Methods Destined to Become a Classic

  ---

• Are Deserts Still Drying Out Since the Ice Age?

  ---

• National Reconnaissance of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams is Making an Impact

  ---

• Fiscal Year 2004 President's Budget Request for the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program

  ---

• Tracking Atrazine and a Breakdown Product (deethylatrazine) through a Drinking-Water Reservoir

  ---

• Toxics Program Scientist Selected as 2003 USGS Engineer of the Year

2002

• Used Motor Oil a Potential Source of MTBE in Ground Water

  ---

• "National Reconnaissance of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in Streams" Named as One of the Top 100 Science Stories of the Year

  ---

• A Unique Approach to Evaluating Natural Attenuation is Applied Worldwide

  ---

• SERDP Invests in Technologies Developed by the Toxics Program

  ---

• How Reliable are Chemical Property Data in the Literature?

  ---

• Handbook on Permeable Reactive Barriers Published - The handbook gives guidance on the use of permeable reactive barriers to remediate radionuclide, trace metal, and nutrient contamination.

  ---

• Landmark Book Published on the Fate of Contaminants in the Environment: Partition and Adsorption of Organic Contaminants in Environmental Systems

  ---

• Parasite infection linked to amphibian malformations in the western United States

  ---

• Glacial Ice Cores Reveal the History of Global Mercury Contamination

  ---

• Three Program Scientists Make Environmental Science and Technology's Top Ten Papers

  ---

• Scientists Discover Analog for Extraterrestrial Life in Idaho Hot Spring

  ---

• What's in Our Wastewaters and Where Does it Go?

  ---

• DNAPL Removal Key to Accelerated, Less Expensive Remediation

  ---

• Mercury-Contaminated Fish--Is it Old or New Mercury?

  ---

• New Paradigm for Fractured Rock Cleanup

  ---

• Phosphorus Doesn't Migrate in Ground Water? Better Think Again!

2001

• Oil Wells Produce More Than Just Oil -- Environmental Impact of Produced Water

  ---

• Using Oxygen to Clean Up Ground-Water Contamination

  ---

• What Controls the Migration of Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Rock?

  ---

• MTBE Can Degrade Naturally Without Oxygen

  ---

• How do you Clean Up Gasoline Spills Naturally?

  ---

• Relying on Nature to Clean Up Contaminated Ground Water

  ---

• MTBE Biodegrades Naturally in Stream Sediments

  ---

• The Atmosphere - A Potential Source of MTBE to Ground Water

  ---

• USGS Info Guides Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone Action Plan

2000+

• Science of the Total Environment Special Issue on Agricultural Chemicals

  ---

• Silver can Affect Fish Reproduction in San Francisco Bay

  ---

• USGS Leads a National Study on Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

  ---

• Nature's Way of Cleaning Up Mining-Contaminated Streams

  ---

• Natural Attenuation for Groundwater Remediation

  ---

• "Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry" Published

  ---

• Measuring Pesticides and How They Transform in the Environment

  ---

• Cleaning up Contamination in Hard Rock Mine Lands

  ---

• Tracer Tests Steer Cleanup of Mined Watersheds

  ---

• Management Practices a Factor in Herbicide Declines

  ---

• Degradates: A Key to Assessing Herbicide Impacts in Streams

  ---

• Where are the Pesticides?

  ---

• Can a Sewage-Contaminated Aquifer Naturally Clean Itself?

  ---

• USGS Studies Support Regulatory Guidance Documents

  ---

• Natural Attenuation of MTBE at Laurel Bay, South Carolina