Subsurface Point-Source Contamination

Locations of Toxics Program Subsurface Point-Source Contamination Investigations (Click on map for larger version) USGS scientists have installed monitoring equipment (wells, rain gage, sampling line) to collect water-quality data on a salt scar that extends from a brine pit (pit and berm in foreground) to Skiatook Lake, Okla. (in background). The brine in this pit at Site B is pumped into collection tanks by a submersible pump, but in the past the pumping system has occasionally failed, causing overflow of the brine pit -- from the Osage-Skiatook Petroleum Environmental Research Project

The Toxics Program conducts intensive field investigations to study common classes of subsurface point-source contamination. (more information)

Contamination in Fractured-Rock Aquifers

Petroleum Related Contamination (including crude oil, gasoline and produced water)

Chlorinated Solvents Contamination

Contamination from Sources with Mixed Wastes (including landfills and wastewater discharge)

Complete listing of point-source investigations and projects >>

Other Subsurface Point-Source Investigations

• Creosote Waste in Ground Water — Pensacola, Florida [Completed]
• Subsurface Injection of Liquid Waste — Florida [Completed]

Subsurface Point-Source Contamination Information

• Index of Bibliographies from Point-Source Investigations
• Index of Photo Galleries for Point-Source Investigations
• Crosscutting Topics Related to Point-Source Contamination
• Contaminant Plume Geochemistry and Microbiology — Geochemical and microbiological characterization of processes related to contaminant plume migration and evolution
• Geophysical Characterization — Surface and borehole geophysical characterization of ground-water contamination
• Ground-Water Contaminant Transport — Contaminant transport and fate in ground water
• Natural Attenuation — Natural attenuation and biodegradation of contaminants
• Site Remediation — Research associated with the monitoring or assessment of site remediation activities
• Tracer Tests — The use and development of tracer tests to study contaminant transport and fate
• Unsaturated Zone — Contaminant transport and fate in the unsaturated zone
• Fact Sheets on Point-Source Contamination
• Bioremediation--Nature's way to a cleaner environment: USGS Fact Sheet FS-O54-95.
• Borehole-radar methods--Tools for characterization of fractured rock: USGS Fact Sheet FS-054-00.
• Cape Cod Toxic Substances Hydrology research site--Physical, chemical, and biological processes that control the fate of contaminants in ground water: USGS Fact Sheet 2006-3096.
• Characterizing ground-water chemistry and hydraulic properties of fractured-rock aquifers using the multifunction bedrock-aquifer transportable testing tool (BAT3): USGS Fact Sheet FS-075-01.
• Contaminant sorption by soil and bed sediment--Is there a difference?: USGS Fact Sheet 087-00.
• Contamination in fractured-rock aquifers--Research at the former Naval Air Warfare Center, West Trenton, New Jersey: USGS Fact Sheet 2007-3074.
• Fractured-rock aquifers--Understanding an increasingly important source of water: USGS Fact Sheet 112-02.
• Ground water contamination by crude oil near Bemidji, Minnesota: USGS Fact Sheet FS-084-98.
• Ground-water recharge in humid areas of the United States--A summary of Ground-Water Resources Program studies, 2003-2006: USGS Fact Sheet 2007-3007.
• Is septic waste affecting drinking water from shallow domestic wells along the Platte River in eastern Nebraska?: USGS Fact Sheet 072-03.
• The Mirror Lake Fractured-Rock Research Site--A multidisciplinary research effort in characterizing ground-water flow and chemical transport in fractured rock: USGS Fact Sheet FS-138-95.
• Naturally occurring radioactive minerals (NORM) in produced water and oil-field equipment--An issue for the energy industry: USGS Fact Sheet FS-142-99.
• The Norman Landfill Environmental Research Site--What happens to the waste in landfills?: USGS Fact Sheet 040-03.
• Robowell--Providing accurate and current water-level and water-quality data in real time for protecting ground-water resources: USGS Fact Sheet FS-053-02.
• Simulating contaminant attenuation, double-porosity exchange, and water age in aquifers using MOC3D: USGS Fact Sheet 086-99.
• Simulating transport of volatile organic compounds in the unsaturated zone using the computer model R-UNSAT: USGS Fact Sheet FS-019-98.
• USGS research on saline waters co-produced with energy resources: USGS Fact Sheet FS-003-97.
• Waste burial in arid environments--Application of information from a field laboratory in the Mojave Desert, southern Nevada: USGS Fact Sheet FS-179-95.

Meetings and Conferences

• 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 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 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