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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

Recent Headlines
Research Projects
Scientist collected earthworms from a soybean field fertilized with biosolids. The earthworms were analyzed for 77 different chemicals; 20 chemicals were detected in the earthworms.

USGS scientist preparing a submersible instrument package that is used to collect water-quality data on the San Francisco Bay, Calif., during a cruise of the USGS Research Vessel Polaris. The instrument includes sensors for measuring depth, conductivity, temperature, suspended solids, chlorophyll, light penetration, and dissolved oxygen
Climate-Driven Ocean Changes Affect Estuaries: Pacific Ocean Cooling Triggers Phytoplankton Blooms in San Francisco Bay

USGS scientist collecting water-quality samples during a hydrogen-consuming, push-pull injection test at the Norman Municipal Landfill Research Site, Okla. The test is used to determine what microbiological processes are active in the subsurface at ground-water contamination sites.

USGS scientist collecting water-quality samples during a hydrogen-consuming, push-pull injection test at the Norman Municipal Landfill Research Site, Okla. The test is used to determine what microbiological processes are active in the subsurface at ground-water contamination sites.

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

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Crosscutting Topics
   
     
   
Photo Gallery
   

Collecting samples anaerobically in a glove bag as part of a study of the biogeochemistry of the landfill leachate plume
Collecting samples anaerobically in a glove bag as part of a study of the biogeochemistry of the landfill leachate plume -- from the Norman Landfill Site

New Publications
   
Meetings

Selected New Publications
A decade of measuring, monitoring, and studying the fate and transport of triazine herbicides in groundwater, surface water, reservoirs, and precipitation by the U.S. Geological Survey (Chapter 30): Thurman, E.M., and Scribner, E.A., 2008 in LeBaron, H.M., McFarland, J., and Burnside, O., eds., The Triazine Herbicides, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Elsevier Science, ISBN:978-0-444-51167-6.

Coupled effect of chemotaxis and growth on microbial distributions in organic-amended aquifer sediments--Observations from laboratory and field studies: Wang, M., Ford, R.M., and Harvey, R.W., 2008, doi:10.1021/es702392h (Advanced Web release).

Analysis of chlorothalonil and three degradates in sediment and soil: Hladik, M.L., and Kuivila, K.M., 2008, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, v. 56, no. 7, p. 2310-2314, doi:10.1021/jf703695s.

Upcoming Publications
Biochemical indicators for the bioavailability of natural dissolved organic carbon in ground water: Chapelle, F.H., Bradley, P.M., Goode, D.J., Tiedeman, C., Lacombe, P.J., Kaiser, K., and Benner, R., Ground Water (IN PRESS).

Biological degradation of chloroethenes: Bradley, P.M., and Chapelle, F.H., in SERDP/ESTCP Monograph on Remediation of Dissolved-Phase Chlorinated Solvents: (IN PRESS).

Comparison of total mercury and methylmercury cycling at five sites using the small watershed approach: Shanley, J.B., Mast, A.M., Campbell, D.H., Aiken, G.R., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Hunt, R.J., Walker, J.F., Schuster, P.F., Chalmers, A., Aulenbach, B.T., Peters, N.E., Marvin-DiPasquale, M., Clow, D.W., and Shafer, M.M., Environmental Pollution, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.12.031 (IN PRESS).

   

USGS and USEPA cosponsor topical session Plant-based Strategies for Hydraulic Control, Monitoring, Attenuation, and Remediation of Contaminants in Soil and Ground Water at the 2008 Joint Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas, October 5-9, 2008

GSA and USGS cosponsor GeoHealth I: Building Bridges Across the Geological and Health Sciences, USGS Headquarters, Reston, Virginia, March 4-6, 2008

USGS is co-sponsoring a special session on Geologic and Hydrologic Controls on Subsurface Redox Conditions at the 2007 AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, Calif., December 10-14, 2007

USGS is co-sponsoring the special session "Perchlorate (and Other Oxyanions) in the Hydrologic Cycle—Origins, Accumulation, Transformations, and Transport (H03)" at the 2007 AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, Calif., December 10-14, 2007

USGS scientist Dr. Larry B. Barber to give keynote talk at CSIRO's sysposium "What's in Our Water: The significance of trace organic compounds", the 2nd Australian Symposium on Ecological Risk Assessment and Management of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Australasian Environment, Canberra, Australia, November 21-22, 2007

USGS is co-sponsoring a theme session on Geologic controls on chemical migration in fractured and carbonate aquifers (T28) at the 2007 GSA Annual Meeting, Denver, Colo., October 28-31, 2007

USGS co-sponsors the 6th International Conference on Pharmaceuticals and EDCs in Water, Costa Mesa, California, October 22-23, 2007

USGS scientists are co-leading a workshop and a field trip on the characterization of contamination in fractured rock at the 2007 NGWA/U.S. EPA Fractured Rock Conference, State of the Science and Measuring Success in Remediation, Portland, Maine, September 24-27, 2007

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