Investigations

Describes ongoing and completed research and field investigations.

Program activities have three major components: field studies at representative sites of Subsurface Point-Source Contamination, investigations of Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination, and Methods Development and Fundamental Research.

Click the map to expand - The map is a graphical representation of the outline below.

Subsurface Point-Source Contamination - Intensive field investigations of representative cases of subsurface contamination at local releases. What are intensive field investigations?

• Ground Water Flow and Transport in Fractured Rock
  • Geochemical and Microbiological Processes that Affect Migration and Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Sedimentary Rock -- Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) Research Site, West Trenton, NJ
  • Multidisciplinary Characterization of Fluid Flow and Solute Transport in Fractured Rock -- Mirror Lake, New Hampshire
• Waste Disposal and Contaminant Migration in the Arid Southwest
         Amargosa Desert Research Site, Nevada
• Sewage-Contaminated Ground Water
         Cape Cod, Massachusetts
• Crude Oil Contamination in the Shallow Subsurface
         Bemidji, Minnesota
• Processes Affecting the Natural Attenuation of Fuels in Ground Water
  • Fuel Oxygenates -- Laurel Bay, South Carolina
  • Gasoline -- Galloway Township, New Jersey
  • Produced Water -- Osage-Skiatook Petroleum Environmental Research Project, Oklahoma
• Fate of Landfill Leachate
         Norman Municipal Landfill, Norman, Oklahoma
• Processes that Control the Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Solvents
  • Microbial Degradation of Chloroethenes in Ground Water Systems
  • Application of Molecular Methods in Microbial Ecology to Understand the Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Solvents

Watershed- and Regional-Scale Contamination - Watershed- and regional-scale investigations of contamination affecting aquatic ecosystems from nonpoint and distributed point sources. What are watershed and regional scale investigations?

• Agricultural Chemicals
  • Upper Midwest (Corn Belt)
  • Cotton Pesticides in the Southern United States
• Varied Human Influences on Estuaries
         San Francisco Bay, California
• Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico
• USGS Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative
  • Upper Animas River Watershed, Colorado
  • Boulder River Watershed, Montana
• Hard Rock Mining Contamination in Rocky Mountain Terrain
         Upper Arkansas River, Colorado
• Hard Rock Mining Contamination in Arid Southwest Alluvial Basins
         Pinal Creek, Arizona
• Effect of Mercury on Aquatic Ecosystems
• Emerging Water Quality Issues Investigations
• Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI)

Methods Development and Fundamental Research - Development of knowledge and methods for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to contamination in the hydrologic cycle. What is the significance of these activities in relation to the field investigations?

Microbial Geochemistry

• Organic Compounds in Near-Surface Environments: Understanding Fate in a Changing Biogeochemical Landscape
• Fate of Organic Chemicals in Subsurface Environments
• Microbiology and Molecular Ecology of Biogeochemical Cycles in Aquatic Environments
• Bacteria-Contaminant Interactions

Geochemistry

• The Reston Chlorofluorocarbon Laboratory
  
• Reston SF6 Laboratory
  
• Aqueous Crystal Growth and Dissolution Kinetics of Earth Surface Materials
  
• Analytical Environmental Trace Element Chemistry and Its Impact on Water Quality
  
• Organic Geochemistry Research Group
  
• Ocala Water Quality & Research Laboratory
  

Hydrology

• Unsaturated Zone Field Studies -- Unsaturated Zone Transport Models
  
• Unsaturated Zone Flow Project
  
• Unsaturated Zone Flow Project Lab Methods
  
• Office of Ground Water, Branch of Geophysics
• Branch of Geophysics Research with the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
• Borehole Geophysics as Applied to Geohydrology
  
• Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project - watershed-scale research from a scientifically panoramic perspective
  
• Multiphase Flow, Transport, Reaction and Biodegradation
  
• Transport Phenomena in Fractured Rock
  
• Hydrology of Fractured Rocks
  
• Geochemical Studies at the Norman Landfill
  
• Toxics Geophysics Project
  
• Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Fundamental Research
• Toxics Program - Metal Release, Transport, and Attenuation in Mined Areas: Mechanisms and Implications for Remediation and Land-Use Strategies
  

Modeling

• Surface Water Hydrology, Mathematical Modeling Principles
  
• Precipitation - Runoff Modeling of Watershed Systems
  
• Solute Transport Simulation in Ground-Water Systems
  
• Application of Stochastic Processes in Hydrogeology
  
• Reaction-Transport Modeling In Ground-Water Systems
  
• National Research Program Ground Water Software
  
• Mathematical Simulation of Subsurface-Water Flow Using Uncertain and Incomplete Data
  

Completed Investigations