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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
   

A municipal well that was part of a network to determine ambient water-quality across Iowa. All sampling took place as close to the wellhead as possible--prior to any treatment (e.g., chlorination). Water samples were representative of the aquifer (raw water), not what people were necessarily drinking
A municipal well that was part of a network to determine ambient water-quality across Iowa. All sampling took place as close to the wellhead as possible--prior to any treatment (e.g., chlorination). Water samples were representative of the aquifer (raw water), not what people were necessarily drinking -- from the Agricultural Chemicals in the Upper Midwest Project

New Publications
   
Meetings

Selected New Publications
Photoreduction fuels biogeochemical cycling of iron in Spain's acid rivers: Gammons, C.H., Nimick, D.A., Parker, S.R., Snyder, D.M., McCleskey, R.B., Amils, R., and Poulson, S.R., 2008, Chemical Geology, v. 252, no. 3-4, p. 202-213, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2008.03.004.

Wetlands as principal zones of methylmercury production in southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico region: Hall, B.D., Aiken, G.R., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Marvin-DiPasquale, M., and Swarzenski, C.M., 2008, Environmental Pollution, v. 154, no. 1, p. 124-134, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.12.017.

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., 2008, Environmental Pollution, v. 154, no. 1, p. 143-154, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.12.031.

Upcoming Publications
Electrical characterization of non-Fickian transport in groundwater and hyporheic systems: Singha, K., Pidlisecky, A., Day-Lewis, F.D., and Gooseff, M.N., Water Resources Research (IN PRESS).

Not all water becomes wine--Sulfur inputs as an opportune tracer of hydrochemical losses from vineyards: Hinckley, E.-L.S., Kendall, C., and Loague, K., Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2007WR006672 (IN PRESS).

Simulated response of water quality in public supply wells to land-use change: McMahon, P.B., Burow, K.R., Kauffman, L.J., Eberts, S.M., Bšhlke, J.K., and Gurdak, J.J., Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2007WR006731 (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

USGS co-sponsor the special session Characterizing Ground-Water Flow and Chemical Transport in Fractured-Rock Aquifers at the 2008 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting in Cairns, Australia, on July 29-August 1, 2008

USGS and Virginia Tech present the NGWA's short course "Estimating Times of Remediation Associated with Monitored Natural Attenuation and Contaminant Source Removal," Tucson, Ariz., March 17-18, 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 co-sponsors the special session "Prediction and Understanding: Model Approaches, Applications and Performance" at the Estuarine Research Federation's 19th Biennial International Conference, Providence, Rhode Island, November 4-8, 2007

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