Geology topics

E.L. Skinner

Publications and source records attributed to E.L. Skinner.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS1988

Effects of coal mine drainage on the water quality of small receiving streams in Washington, 1975-77

Drainage from abandoned coal mines in western and central Washington has minimal environmental impact. Water quality characteristics that have the most significant environmental impact are suspended sediment and turbidity. Water quality data from 51 abandoned coal mines representing 11 major coal bearing areas indicate that less than 1% of the mine drainage has a pH of 4.5 or less. Fifty percent of the drainage is alkaline and has pH 7.0 and greater, and about 95% of the drainage has pH 6.0 and greater. Less than 2% is acidified to a pH of 5.6, a point where water and free (atmospheric) carbon dioxide are in equilibrium. The area where pH 5.6 or less is most likely to occur is in the Centralia/Chehalis mine district. No significant difference in diversity of benthic organisms was found between stations above and below the mine drainage. However, within the 50-ft downstream reach ostracods were more abundant than above the mine drainage and mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies were less abundant than at the control site. Correlations to water quality measurements show that these faunal changes are closely associated with iron and sulfate concentrations. (USGS)

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗

USGS1983

Laboratory safety handbook

Safety, defined as 'freedom from danger, risk, or injury,' is difficult to achieve in a laboratory environment. Inherent dangers, associated with water analysis and research laboratories where hazardous samples, materials, and equipment are used, must be minimized to protect workers, buildings, and equipment. Managers, supervisors, analysts, and laboratory support personnel each have specific responsibilities to reduce hazards by maintaining a safe work environment. General rules of conduct and safety practices that involve personal protection, laboratory practices, chemical handling, compressed gases handling, use of equipment, and overall security must be practiced by everyone at all levels. Routine and extensive inspections of all laboratories must be made regularly by qualified people. Personnel should be trained thoroughly and repetitively. Special hazards that may involve exposure to carcinogens, cryogenics, or radiation must be given special attention, and specific rules and operational procedures must be established to deal with them. Safety data, reference materials, and texts must be kept available if prudent safety is to be practiced and accidents prevented or minimized.

Open-File Report↗

USGS1972

Ground-water quality in Wisconsin through 1972

Ground water, a plentiful and largely underdeveloped resource of Wisconsin, has good to excellent chemical quality in most places. This resource is readily available in most parts of the State for municipal, industrial, and rural uses. In 1970, about 0.5 billion gallons of ground water a day was pumped in Wisconsin for all uses (Murray and Reeves, 1972). In addition, underground reservoirs discharge an average of 16 billion gallons per day of water of relatively constant temperature and uniform quality, which maintains the base flow of streams and the level of lakes (Holt, 1964).

Wisconsin↗

USGS1969

Water resources of Wisconsin: Rock-Fox River basin

PURPOSE AND SCOPE The purpose of this report is to describe the physical environment, availability, distribution, characteristics, movement, quality, water problems, and use of water within the Rock-Fox River basin in order to aid in planning future water management within the basin. This report presents general information on the basin that was derived from data obtained from Federal, State, and local agencies. In addition, new data were collected from areas where available data were scarce. The reader is referred to the section entitled “Agencies Having Additional Information” and to the list of selected references (sheet 4) for sources of more detailed information. This atlas is one of a series of 12 river-basin studies designed to describe in general terms the water resources of the State. More detailed studies of problem areas will be required in the future as the need for additional information increases. LOCATION AND EXTENT The Rock-Fox River basin in Wisconsin, covers about 4,750 square miles in the southeastern part of the State. It includes all or parts of the following 13 counties: Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Racine, Rock, Walworth, Washington, and Waukesha. It includes the area drained by the Rock, Fox, and Des Plaines Rivers within the State of Wisconsin. Although the basin boundary is the topographic divide, part of the streamflow is derived from ground water that drains from an area similar to, but not having the same boundaries as, the topographic basin. The ground-water basin covers about 4,350 square miles, 400 square miles less than the topographic basin. Most of the reduction in basin area is along the eastern side of the basin.

Wisconsin↗

USGS1966

Water resources of Branch County, Michigan

Branch County has abundant water resources throughout most of its area. Almost all the water used is supplied by wells that obtain water from glacial drift deposits and locally from fractures and sandy beds in the Coldwater Shale. Glacial drift in buried bedrock valleys may yield large quantities of water to wells. Well yields are generally adequate for domestic and farm supplies. Properly developed large-diameter wells tapping thick beds of sand and gravel of the glacial drift can yield up to several thousands of gallons per minute locally. The hundreds of lakes and the many perennial streams have great recreational value. They are also a large potential source of water for some supplies. For example, it is estimated that 88 billion gallons of water runs off in streams of the county in an average year, and the lakes o the county hold about 42billion gallons of water in storage. Problems of water supply to wells exist locally in some moraine and till areas of where the glacial drift is thin and the underlying bedrock yields only small quantities of water or none at all. Ground water is generally hard to very hard and often contains excessive iron. Salty water is mainly a problem in areas where bedrock is the chief source. Floods are not a serious problem largely because of the storage capacity of the lakes and the permeable materials in some stream basins. Based on measurements at eight stream sites the estimated amount of flow for 90 percent of the time ranges from 80,000 to 150,000 gallons per day per square mile of drainage area. A special study of low levels in land-locked Gilead Lake indicated that this lake is semiperched and mostly dependent upon the water table for tits levels.

Michigan↗