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Toxic Substances Hydrology Program

The Toxic Substances Hydrology Program provides objective scientific information on environmental contamination to improve characterization and management of contaminated sites, to protect human and environmental health, and to reduce potential future contamination problems. Read more about the Toxics Program

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Research Projects
USGS scientists collecting gas samples from the unsaturated zone. Subsurface gases are drawn through a small glass tube filled with an adsorbing material, which traps mercury or volatile organic compounds for later analysis.

USGS scientist collecting samples of aquatic species from the Pike River, Wis., for later analysis of mercury contamination.

Scientists prepare to lower a rosette of 12 Niskin bottles on the vessel R/V Thomas G. Thompson. The device enables the collection of samples in the ocean via remote triggering of each bottle at different depths. Extreme care was taken to ensure that the rosette does not contaminate the samples. Photo courtesy of William Landing, Florida State University.

States with mercury fish consumption advisories (EPA, 2008). Every state has at least one advisory.

USGS scientist measuring pH and other water properties on the banks of Fourmile Creek, Iowa, before collecting a sediment sample for laboratory biodegradation experiments.

Even though this vernal pool in Seminoe State Park, Wyoming will not be wet all year long, it forms critical habitat for many species of wildlife.

   
     
   
Crosscutting Topics
   
     
   
Photo Gallery
   

Excavated leaking underground storage tank (UST) from the Galloway Site, NJ
Excavated leaking underground storage tank (UST) from the Galloway Site, NJ -- from the Natural Attenuation of Fuels Photo Gallery

New Publications
   
Meetings

Selected New Publications
Antidepressant pharmaceuticals in two U.S. effluent-impacted streams--Occurrence and fate in water and sediment, and selective uptake in fish neural tissue: Schultz, M.M., Furlong, E.T., Kolpin, D.W., Werner, S.L., Schoenfuss, H.L., Barber, L.B., Blazer, V.S., Norris, D.O., and Vajda, A.M., 2010, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es9022706 (Advanced Web release).

In situ measurements of volatile aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation rates in groundwater: Cozzarelli, I.M., Bekins, B.A., Eganhouse, R.P., Warren, E., and Essaid, H.I., 2010, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, v. 111, no. 1-4, p. 48-64 doi:10.1016/j.jconhyd.2009.12.001.

Patterns of mercury dispersion from local and regional emission sources, rural Central Wisconsin, USA: Kolker, A., Olson, M.L., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Tate, M.T., and Engle, M.A., 2010, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v. 10, no. 1, p. 1823-1846.

Upcoming Publications
Analysis of solvent dyes in refined petroleum products by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry: Rostad, C.E., Fuel, doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2009.09.011 (IN PRESS).

The effect of planting method on Populus Spp. and Salix Sp. mortality and growth at a petroleum-hydrocarbon contaminated shallow aquifer: Cook, R.L., Landmeyer, J.E., Atkinson, B., Messier, J.P., and Guthrie Nichols, E., International Journal of Phytoremediation (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).

   

USGS cosponsors the special session Fate and Transport of Radionuclides in the Environment at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 14-18, 2009

USGS cosponsors the special session Nutrient Sources and Cycling in Aquatic Systems at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 14-18, 2009

USGS cosponsors the special session Fate and Behavior of Pharmaceuticals in Treated Wastewaters, Sludge and River Waters at the SETAC 30th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 19-23, 2009

The USGS sponsored the special session Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals--Analytical Methods and Environment Processes at the SETAC 30th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 19-23, 2009

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 science featured at the AAAS symposium San Francisco Bay: Tracking and Understanding a Changing Estuary, San Francisco, California, August 17, 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, University of Texas at El Paso, and the Mountain Studies Institute conducted a field trip on Acid Rock Drainage in the San Juans in Prospect Gulch, near Silverton, Colorado, on August 1, 2009.

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