U.S. Geological Survey
Study area PROJECT CHIEF: Dennis A. Wentz
LOCATION: Multi County
PROJECT EXTENT: Willamette Basin
TOTAL AREA, IN SQUARE MILES : 12,000
Bed sediment and fish tissue samples were analyzed for dioxins and furans from two sites to complete the data base for this effort. Fixed-station stream sampling for major constituents and nutrients in water continued through spring 1995 at seven locations; pesticides in water were analyzed at four of these sites. Ecological studies, including evaluation of habitat, algae, macroinvertebrates, and fish, were conducted at five of the fixed stations during summer 1995.
A study of the occurrence of major constituents, nutrients, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds in ground water from 10 drilled wells was conducted in the Portland metropolitan area during summer 1995. Studies of the hydrology of hyporheic flow throughout the Willamette Basin, in general, and at the confluence of the Santiam and Willamette Rivers, in particular, continued in collaboration with personnel from the National Research Program in Menlo Park.
A journal article on trace elements and organochlorine compounds in bed sediment and tissue was approved, and a fact sheet on nitrogen in water was published. In addition, a collaborative interpretive report funded through the cooperative program by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality was published; the report describes pesticides, nutrients, and trace elements in water during 1992-94. Significant progress was made on the completion of 10 other reports.
Classification of land use from Landsat Thematic Mapper data in collaboration with the EROS Data Center was completed, and the data were made available through the internet.
Four reports -- retrospective analysis of aquatic ecology, analysis of ground water quality, journal article on dioxins and furans, and journal article on trace elements and organochlorine pesticides and PCBs in bed sediment and tissue -- were approved for publication. Significant progress was made on the completion of 6 other reports.
Three reports -- summary of water quality in the Willamette Basin, nutrients and pesticides in streams, and dioxins and furans in bed sediment and aquatic biota -- were approved for publication. Significant progress was made on the completion of six additional reports.
Two reports -- environmental setting of the Willamette Basin and relationships of algal communities to water quality and land use -- were approved for publication. Significant progress was made on the completion of four additional reports.