USGS Ohio Water Science Center

Geography Matters! 10th Annual GIS Day 2008.

11/18/2008 -- About 80% of all data has a spatial component. Celebrated during Geography Awareness Week (Nov. 16-22), GIS Day provides an opportunity to learn more about geography and geographic information systems (GIS) technology. A GIS combines computer software, hardware, and data to allow a user to analyze, manipulate, present, and store information tied to a spatial location. GIS is a major component of many of the projects in the Ohio Water Science Center such as documenting a flood on the Cuyahoga River near Independence and helping develop the City of Findlay flood warning system. In fact, some projects, like Ohio’s StreamStats and Ohio’s Aquatic Gap Project, would not be possible without GIS. Among other USGS applications of GIS is the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program’s NAWQA Mapper, which allows the user to view maps and data of water quality from sites across Ohio and the Nation.

Cutting-Edge Science Telling Us What’s In The Water.

Outfall from waste water treatment plant into Tinkers Creek. 11/14/2008 -- The occurrence and distribution of organic wastewater compounds in Tinkers Creek and two other tributaries to the Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio is documented in a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Ohio Water Development Authority and other Federal, State, and local agencies and was recently presented at the Water Management Association of Ohio (WMAO) annual fall conference. Innovative passive sampling devices were deployed in the streams for 28 days, and samples were then analyzed by methods recently developed in USGS laboratories. A total of 12 antibiotic, 20 pharmaceutical, 41 wastewater, and 22 hydrophobic compounds were detected at one or more sites in water, and 8 pharmaceutical and 37 wastewater compounds were detected in streambed sediments. Little is known about any health effects on aquatic organisms exposed to low levels of these chemicals or mixtures of these chemicals in streams.

Sedimentation, Morphology, and Floods in Wheeling Creek Watershed.

Sedimentation, Morphology, and Floods in Wheeling Creek Watershed. 11/10/2008 --Stream sedimentation and flooding have long been issues of debate and concern in the extensively surface-mined Wheeling Creek Basin of eastern Ohio. Fears that mine sediments might aggravate flooding of Wheeling Creek led to dredging and informal levee construction in the 1980s. Recent concerns prompted the USGS Ohio Water Science Center, in cooperation with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency to conduct a new multifaceted study. This 2006 study compared streambed characteristics from the late 1980’s with current conditions along selected reaches of Wheeling Creek. Additionally, step-backwater models were developed to estimate flood elevations to assess current conditions and a variety of dredging and sediment-accumulation scenarios. Full details and results of the study are given in a recently released USGS report.

Older News

Nowcasting Beach Advisories at Ohio Lake Erie Beaches

keywords: Ohio, Lake Erie, beaches, E. coli, Nowcast, modeling

Algal Biomass Indicators

keywords: USGS, algal biomass, algae, chlorophyll a, field manual

Flood of June 22–24, 2006, in North-Central Ohio, With Emphasis on the Cuyahoga River Near Independence

keywords: Cuyahoga River, flood, Ohio

Consumptive Water-Use Coefficients for the Great Lakes Basin and Climatically Similar Areas

keywords: Great Lakes, water-use, consumptive use,

Location

Ohio Water Science Center:
6480 Doubletree Ave
Columbus, OH 43229-1111
Map | Directions To | Directions From
Phone (614) 430-7700
Fax (614) 430-7777