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Programs in Texas Fact Sheet United States Geological Survey Programs in Texas The USGS provides maps, reports, and information to help others meet their needs to manage, develop, and protect America's water, energy, mineral, and land resources. We help find natural resources needed to build tomorrow, and supply scientific understanding needed to help minimize or mitigate the effects of natural hazards and environmental damage caused by human activities. The results of our efforts touch the daily lives of almost every American. Flood-Related Activities The USGS also is involved in related Index of Subjects statewide studies, including a flood-fre­ quency analysis and a study of channel £ Iqpd-ieiatetj Activities Meteorologic and physiographic fac­ Ktonftoring^jf tand;Subsi6ertce tors in parts of Texas combine to produce scour at bridges. The flood-frequency National Water-duality, Assessment Program some of the most intense rainstorms in the analysis, which is done in cooperation Nation; these rainstorms cause severe, with (that is, on a cost-sharing basis with) Studie&ofilnvironmental Contamination ;at destructive floods somewhere in the State the Texas Department of Transportation, almost every year. A recent example is uses streamflow data collected at previous ^ud|es InvolMng AvaiteBlllyeand Management the catastrophic flooding in the Houston and current (1995) streamflow-gaging of Ground Water eplleistjoh of tHyHrotcpc Data, area in October 1994 that resulted in at sites to predict streamflow characteristics, such as flood magnitude and probability. Assessment of XDif andffJSS; Resourcefs, least 22 deaths, hundreds of millions of Studies of jContamlrratiorf from Oil;and Gas Pro** The information from this study, together dollars in property damage, and substan­ with knowledge of low-flow streamflow tial environmental damage. When flood­ characteristics at gaging sites, is useful in Estuaries ing is imminent, the U.S. Geological bridge and highway design, reservoir National ppat Resources: Data System! Survey (USGS) mobilizes field crews that design and operation, and waste-dis­ work around the clock making direct i Earth Observation Data charge and pollution-abatement activities. CqdjpierMive Programs measurements of streamflow and water- surface elevations. The data collected by Strong currents, such as those caused tible to scour-related failure. The work also includes development and testing of USGS personnel are provided continu­ by floodwaters, can erode the streambed instrumentation for monitoring streambed ously to the National Weather Service and at the foundation of a bridge. If the stre­ scour at bridges during floods. the Federal Emergency Management ambed is eroded (scoured) sufficiently, Agency among others. The data collected then the foundation can shift, causing during a series of floods provide a chro­ sudden failure of the bridge. Studies of Monitoring of nology of historical peak streamflows and streambed scour in Texas by the USGS, Land Subsidence water-surface elevations that aid in flood done in cooperation with the Texas Compaction of underground clay lay­ forecasting and the design of structures to Department of Transportation, are identi­ ers caused by the withdrawal of large convey or withstand flood waters. fying the bridges in the State most suscep- amounts of ground water, as well as oil and gas, in the Houston area has resulted in land subsidence from 1 to nearly 10 feet in an area of more than 5,000 square miles. Tidal inundation and (or) increased frequency of flooding in subsidence- affected areas (fig. 1) have required the expenditure of millions of dollars to reclaim submerged lands, construct levees, and elevate structures and road­ ways. The USGS, in cooperation with the Harris-Galveston Coastal Subsidence District, continually monitors land sub­ sidence in the Houston area. Global Posi­ tioning System technology uses satellites to measure land-surface elevations with an accuracy of less than 1 centimeter. The elevation data are electronically transmit­ ted each day to a computer at the Subsid­ Figure 1. The effects of land subsidence tidal inundation of yard at Baytown, Texas. ence District office. lay reports to local, State, and Federal Studies of Environmental agencies and to the public. Contamination at Federal Installations A principal goal of the Trinity River Basin study is the detection of trends in Several U.S. Department of Defense streamwater quality over time. This is sites and a U.S. Department of Energy being done by examining cores of bottom site in Texas have reported the contamina­ sediments in reservoirs and by correlating tion of soil or shallow ground water by the ages of sediment layers in the cores to hazardous or radioactive substances. concentrations of various trace elements These contaminants have the potential to and organic constituents in those layers. migrate into drinking-water supplies or For example, examination of cores of sed­ other water resources. The USGS is coop­ iment from White Rock Lake in Dallas erating with the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air has shown that concentrations of lead in Force, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Figure 2. NAWQA study units in Texas. the bottom sediments were constant from and Department of Energy in a variety of 1910 to the late 1950's. Lead concentra­ complex contaminant hydrology, hydro- tions increased about fivefold between geology, and lake studies at Federal Aquifers are an important source of about 1960 and the early 1970's, when installations. A major study is in progress water supply in the Houston area, rapid urbanization of the watershed at the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve although measures have been taken to began. Concentrations decreased mark­ Plant and the adjacent Naval Air Station- reduce the area's dependence on ground edly from the early 1970's to the present, Dallas in Grande Prairie to determine water and thus reduce land subsidence. coincident with the change to unleaded whether contaminants from sites on the Because of the relation between ground- gasoline. installations have affected the water qual­ water withdrawals and land subsidence, ity and aquatic ecology of adjacent Moun­ the USGS, in cooperation with the Har- Effects of Urbanization and tain Creek Lake and whether contam­ ris-Galveston Coastal Subsidence Dis­ Agriculture on Water Quality inants have migrated into the well casings trict, the Fort Bend Subsidence District, of deep water-supply wells that pass and the city of Houston, measures and The USGS is cooperating with local through contaminated zones in the shal­ prepares reports of changes in ground- water-resources management agencies to low aquifer. water levels in the Houston area. monitor stormwater runoff in many of the The USGS is assisting the Air Force major urban areas in Texas. These data Plant 4 in Fort Worth in studies involving have been collected for several years in National Water-Quality issues similar to those at Grand Prairie. the Austin, the Dallas-Fort Worth, the Assessment Program Hazardous substances from the Superfund Houston, and the San Antonio metropoli­ site at the installation have contaminated The long-term goals of the National tan areas. Information obtained from parts of the shallow aquifer; the installa­ Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) stormwater monitoring and characteriza­ tion is adjacent to residential areas and a Program are to describe the status and tion studies has been used by the cooper­ reservoir. One of the studies is defining trends in the quality of a large representa­ ating agencies to assess the effectiveness the ground-water-flow system and charac­ tive part of the Nation's surface- and of stormwater-detention structures, to terizing ground-water quality in the resi­ ground-water resources and to identify establish basinwide water-quality ordi­ dential areas adjacent to the plant. the natural and human factors that affect nances, to assess the quality of recharge their quality. The NAWQA Program will water entering the Edwards aquifer in the At the Superfund site at the Pantex produce a wealth of water-quality infor­ Austin and the San Antonio areas, and to Plant near Amarillo, the USGS, in coop­ mation that will be useful to policymakers serve as the basis for permitting stormwa­ eration with the Department of Energy and water managers at local, State, and ter discharges into streams in the Dallas- and the Corps of Engineers, is conducting national levels. Fort Worth and the San Antonio metro­ a study to determine the potential for con­ politan areas. taminants in shallow ground water to Two NAWQA Program studies are migrate downward into water-yielding underway in Texas: the Trinity River The USGS is cooperating with the zones of the High Plains aquifer, which is Basin, which was started in 1991, and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation the major source of water supply in the South-Central Texas, which was started in Board in studies designed to help evaluate Texas Panhandle. 1994 and focuses on the Edwards aquifer the effectiveness of agricultural "best in the San Antonio region (fig. 2). Com­ management practices." A major study is Studies Involving Availability munication and coordination with water- underway in the Seco Creek Basin west of and Management of Ground management, environmental-protection, San Antonio to quantify the effects of Water and other water-resources agencies and farming and ranching best management institutions are key components of the practices on water quality and quantity, Aquifers supply about 60 percent
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