Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination

Locations of Toxics Program Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Investigations (Click on map for larger version) Tailings piles, such as this one in California Gulch, Colo., are a source of metal-rich, acidic water in the upper Arkansas River Watershed, Colo. USGS scientists studied the occurrence of toxic metals in water, colloids, and bed sediments in the Arkansas River downstream from it's confluence with California Gulch -- from the Hardrock Mining in Rocky Mountain Terrain -- Upper Arkansas River, Colorado Photo Gallery

The Toxics Program conducts watershed- and regional-scale investigations of legacy, current, and emerging contaminants affecting aquatic ecosystems from common types of nonpoint and distributed point-source contamination. More about watershed- and regional-scale contamination investigations

Watershed Contamination from Hard-Rock Mining

Pesticide Contamination in Varied Pesticide-Use Settings

Emerging Contaminants in the Environment

Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems

Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative

Priority Ecosystem Studies

Complete listing of watershed and regional scale investigations and projects >>

Other Watershed- and Regional-Scale Investigations

• Fate of Organic Compounds in River Systems, Lower Calcasieu River, Louisiana [Completed]
• Management Systems Evaluation Areas, Upper Midwest (Corn Belt) [Completed]
• Nonpoint-Source Ground-Water Contamination in Relation to Land Use [Completed]
• National Irrigation Water Quality Program (NIWQP) [Completed]

Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Information

• Index of Bibliographies from Point-Source Investigations
• Index of Photo Galleries for Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination Investigations
• Crosscutting Topics Related to Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination
• Agricultural Chemicals — Occurrence and fate of chemicals used for agriculture
• Contaminant Occurrence Studies — Large-scale studies of the occurrence and distribution of new contaminants in the environment
• Nutrients — Fate and effects of nutrients in the environment
• Surface-Water Contaminant Transport — Research on the transport and fate of contaminants in surface water
• Unsaturated Zone — Contaminant transport and fate in the unsaturated zone
• Selected Fact Sheets on Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination
• Water quality in the Blue River Basin, Kansas City metropolitan area, Missouri and Kansas, July 1998 to October 2004: USGS Fact Sheet 2006-3103.
• Wastewater chemicals in Colorado's streams and ground water: USGS Fact Sheet 2004-3127.
• Trends in the water budget of the Mississippi River basin, 1949-1997: USGS Fact Sheet 2005-3020.
• Is septic waste affecting drinking water from shallow domestic wells along the Platte River in eastern Nebraska?: USGS Fact Sheet 072-03.
• Linking selenium sources to ecosystems--San Francisco Bay-Delta model: USGS Fact Sheet 2004-3091.
• Water quality of the Boulder Creek watershed, Colorado: USGS Fact Sheet 043-03.
• Mercury in stream ecosystems--New studies initiated by the U.S. Geological Survey: USGS Fact Sheet 016-03.
• Occurrence of antibiotics in water from fish hatcheries: USGS Fact Sheet 120-02.
• Glacial ice cores reveal a record of natural and anthropogenic atmospheric mercury deposition for the last 270 years: USGS Fact Sheet FS-051-02.
• Pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants in U.S. streams: USGS Fact Sheet FS-027-02.
• Malformed frogs in Minnesota--An update: USGS Fact Sheet FS-043-01.
• Nitrogen in the Mississippi Basin--Estimating sources and predicting flux to the Gulf of Mexico: USGS Fact Sheet 135-00.
• Mercury contamination from historic gold mining in California: USGS Fact Sheet FS-061-00.
• Discharge of herbicides from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico, 1991-97: USGS Fact Sheet FS-163-98.
• Occurrence of cotton pesticides in surface water of the Mississippi Embayment: USGS Fact Sheet FS-022-98.
• Herbicides in rain fall across the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, 1990-91: USGS Fact Sheet FS-181-97.
• Herbicides in Midwestern reservoir outflows, 1992-93: USGS Fact Sheet FS-134-98.
• Herbicides in ground water of the Midwest--A regional study of shallow aquifers, 1991-94: USGS Fact Sheet FS-076-98.
• A reconnaissance for sulfonylurea herbicides in waters of the Midwestern USA: An example of collaboration between the public and private sectors: USGS Fact Sheet FS-046-98.
• Methods to identify areas susceptible to irrigation-induced selenium contamination in the Western United States: USGS Fact Sheet FS-O38-97.
• Source characterization of disinfection byproduct precursors in two Arkansas water-supply reservoirs: USGS Fact Sheet 118-97.
• Agricultural chemicals in Iowa's ground water, 1982-95 -- What are the trends: USGS Fact Sheet FS-116-97.
• Are walleye from Lake Roosevelt contaminated with mercury?: USGS Fact Sheet FS-102-97.
• Vulnerability of public drinking water supplies in New Jersey to pesticides: USGS Fact Sheet FS-165-96.
• Using Geochemical and Statistical Tools to Identify Irrigated Areas that Might Contain High Selenium Concentrations in Surface Water: USGS Fact Sheet FS-O77-96.
• Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems: USGS Fact Sheet FS-216-95.

Meetings and Conferences

• GSA and USGS cosponsor GeoHealth I: Building Bridges Across the Geological and Health Sciences, USGS Headquarters, Reston, Virginia, March 4-6, 2008
• 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 6th International Conference on Pharmaceuticals and EDCs in Water, Costa Mesa, California, October 22-23, 2007