Washington Water Science Center
Publications
The USGS Washington Water Science Center now has an online mailing list for publication alerts. If you would like to be notified of recent publications via email, then you should sign up!
Search the USGS Publications Warehouse
Ordering USGS Publications and Products
Variable-density groundwater flow and contaminant transport, Operable Unit 1, Naval Base Kitsap, Keyport, Washington
Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) have migrated to groundwater beneath a former 9-acre landfill at Operable Unit 1 (OU-1) on Naval Base Kitsap, which was active from the 1930s through 1973 on the Keyport Peninsula, in Kitsap County, Washington. Biodegradation of CVOCs at OU-1 limits the mass of dissolved-phase CVOCs in groundwater...
Yager, Richard M.; Welch, Wendy B.; Headman, Alexander; Dinicola, Richard S.
Contaminants in fish and shellfish in the Stillaguamish River and Port Susan marine areas, Washington
The greater Port Susan area of Central Puget Sound, Washington, is home to some of the Stillaguamish Tribe’s fishing, hunting, and gathering areas since time immemorial. It is also a popular sport and commercial fishing area for the public. Large shellfish beds lie in the Port Susan and Stillaguamish estuary and several Pacific salmon species...
Moran, Patrick; Perez, Franchesca; McBride, Dave
FLOwPER user guide—For collection of FLOw PERmanence field observations
The accurate mapping of streams and their streamflow conditions in terms of presence or absence of surface water is important to both understanding physical, chemical, and biological processes in streams and to managing land, water, and ecological resources. This document describes a field form, FLOwPER (FLOw PERmanence), available within a mobile...
Jaeger, Kristin L.; Burnett, Jonathan; Heaston, Emily D.; Wondzell, Steve M.; Chelgren, Nathan; Dunham, Jason B.; Johnson, Sherri; Brown, Mike
Evaluation of the Washington State Department of Transportation stormwater monitoring and effectiveness program for 2014–19
The U.S. Geological Survey was asked by the Washington State Department of Transportation to provide technical assistance as a third-party reviewer of their stormwater effectiveness monitoring program during the transition between the completion of the 2014 Washington State Department of Ecology permit requirements and start of the new 2019...
Senter, Craig A.; Sheibley, Richard W.
Legacy and current-use toxic contaminants in Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) from Puget Sound, Washington
Forage fish are primary prey for seabirds, fish and marine mammals. Elevated levels of pollutants in Puget Sound, Washington salmon and killer whale tissues potentially could be sufficiently high to elicit adverse effects and hamper population recovery efforts. Contaminant transfer and biomagnification of the toxic compounds measured in this study...
Conn, Kathleen E.; Liedtke, Theresa L.; Takesue, Renee K.; Dinicola, Richard S. Land-cover and climatic controls on water temperature, flow permanence, and fragmentation of Great Basin stream networks
The seasonal and inter-annual variability of flow presence and water temperature within headwater streams of the Great Basin of the western United States limit the occurrence and distribution of coldwater fish and other aquatic species. To evaluate changes in flow presence and water temperature during seasonal dry periods, we developed spatial...
Gendaszek, Andrew S.; Dunham, Jason B.; Torgersen, Christian E.; Hockman-Wert, David P; Heck, Michael; Thorson, Justin Martin; Mintz, Jeffrey Michael; Allai, Todd Quality Assurance Project Plan: Status and trends monitoring of small streams in the Puget Lowlands ecoregion for Stormwater Action Monitoring (SAM)
This Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) details a long term status and trends monitoring study for small streams in the Puget Lowland as part of Stormwater Action Monitoring (SAM) program. SAM is the regional stormwater monitoring program funded by the Phase I Municipal Stormwater permit and the Western Washington Phase II Municipal Stormwater...
Song, Keunyea; Sheibley, Rich W. Using saline or brackish aquifers as reservoirs for thermal energy storage, with example calculations for direct-use heating in the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA
Tools to evaluate reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES; heat storage in slow-moving or stagnant geochemically evolved permeable zones in strata that underlie well-connected regional aquifers) are developed and applied to the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) beneath the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA. The performance of RTES for heat storage and...
Van Houten, Boz; Burns, Erick; Bershaw, John; Williams, Colin F.; Wells, Ray E; Uddenberg, Matt W; Scanlon, Darby P; Cladouhos, Trenton T; Van Houten, Boz Evidence for rapid gut clearance of microplastic polyester fibers fed to Chinook Salmon: A tank study
Marine and freshwater plastic pollution is a challenging issue receiving large amounts of research and media attention. Yet, few studies have documented the impact of microplastic ingestion to aquatic organisms. In the Pacific Northwest, Chinook salmon are a culturally and commercially significant fish species. The presence of marine and...
Spanjer, Andrew; Liedtke, Theresa L.; Conn, Kathleen E.; Weiland, Lisa K.; Black, Robert W.; Nathan Godfrey
Streambed scour of salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) redds in the South Fork Tolt River, King County, Washington
Prior to emergence as fry, salmonid embryos incubating within gravel nests called “redds” are vulnerable to substrate mobilization and lowering of the streambed, a process termed “streambed scour,” during floods. Water managers regulating discharge in salmonid-bearing rivers need information about the magnitude of discharge during which the scour...
Gendaszek, Andrew S.; Ablow, Elizabeth; Marks, Derek Microplastics in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, USA: Occurrence and biological uptake
Microplastics are an environmental contaminant of growing concern, but there is a lack of information about microplastic distribution, persistence, availability, and biological uptake in freshwater systems. This is especially true for large river systems like the Colorado River that spans multiple states through mostly rural and agricultural land...
Baldwin, Austin K.; Spanjer, Andrew; Rosen, Michael R.; Thom, Theresa Legacy and current‐use contaminants in sediments alter macroinvertebrate communities in southeastern US Streams
Sediment contamination of freshwater streams in urban areas is a recognized and growing concern. As a part of a comprehensive regional stream‐quality assessment, stream‐bed sediment was sampled from streams spanning a gradient of urban intensity in the Piedmont ecoregion of the southeastern United States. We evaluated relations between a broad...
Moran, Patrick W.; Kemble, Nile E.; Waite, Ian R.; Mahler, Barbara; Nowell, Lisa H.; Van Metre, Peter C.