An assessment of uranium in groundwater in the Grand Canyon region.

The Grand Canyon region in northern Arizona is a home or sacred place of origin for many Native Americans and is visited by over 6 million tourists each year. Most communities in the area depend upon groundwater for all water uses. Some of the highest-grade uranium ore in the United States also is found in the Grand Canyon region.

Recent and projected precipitation and temperature changes in the Grand Canyon area with implications for groundwater resources.

Groundwater is a critical resource in the Grand Canyon region, supplying nearly all water needs for residents and millions of visitors. Additionally, groundwater discharging at hundreds of spring locations in and near Grand Canyon supports important ecosystems in this mostly arid environment. The security of groundwater supplies is of critical importance for both people and ecosystems in the region and the potential for changes to groundwater systems from projected climate change is a cause for concern.

Assessing uranium and select trace elements associated with breccia pipe uranium deposits in the Colorado River and main tributaries in Grand Canyon, USA.

Assessing chemical loading from streams in remote, difficult-to-access watersheds is challenging. The Grand Canyon area in northern Arizona, an international tourist destination and sacred place for many Native Americans, is characterized by broad plateaus divided by canyons as much as two-thousand meters deep and hosts some of the highest-grade uranium deposits in the U.S.

Investigation of recent decadal-scale cyclical fluctuations in salinity in the lower Colorado River.

Beginning in the late 1970s, 10- to 15-year cyclical oscillations in salinity were observed at lower Colorado River monitoring sites, moving upstream from the international border with Mexico, above Imperial Dam, below Hoover Dam, and at Lees Ferry. The cause of these cyclical trends in salinity was unknown. These salinity cycles complicate the U.

Changes in Projected Spatial and Seasonal Groundwater Recharge in the Upper Colorado River Basin.

The Colorado River is an important source of water in the western United States, supplying the needs of more than 38 million people in the United States and Mexico. Groundwater discharge to streams has been shown to be a critical component of streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB), particularly during low-flow periods. Understanding impacts on groundwater in the basin from projected climate change will assist water managers in the region in planning for potential changes in the river and groundwater system.

Investigation of Total and Hexavalent Chromium in Filtered and Unfiltered Groundwater Samples at the Tucson International Airport Superfund Site.

Potential health effects from hexavalent chromium in groundwater have recently become a concern to regulators at the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund site. In 2016, the U.S.

Temporal moisture content variability beneath and external to a building and the potential effects on vapor intrusion risk assessment.

Migration of vapors from organic chemicals residing in the subsurface into overlying buildings is known as vapor intrusion. Because of the difficulty in evaluating vapor intrusion by indoor air sampling, models are often employed to determine if a potential indoor inhalation exposure pathway exists and, if such a pathway is complete, whether long-term exposure increases the occupants' risk for cancer or other toxic effects to an unacceptable level. For site-specific vapor intrusion assessments, moisture content is, at times, determined from soil cores taken in open spaces between buildings.

Design and laboratory testing of a chamber device to measure total flux of volatile organic compounds from the unsaturated zone under natural conditions.

To determine if an aquifer contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has potential for natural remediation, all natural processes affecting the fate and transport of VOCs in the subsurface must be identified and quantified. This research addresses the quantification of air-phase volatile organic compounds (VOCs) leaving the unsaturated zone soil gas and entering the atmosphere-including the additional flux provided by advective soil-gas movement induced by barometric pumping. A simple and easy-to-use device for measuring VOC flux under natural conditions is presented.

Relative importance of gas-phase diffusive and advective tichloroethene (TCE) fluxes in the unsaturated zone under natural conditions.

It was hypothesized that atmospheric pressure changes can induce gas flow in the unsaturated zone to such an extent that the advective flux of organic vapors in unsaturated-zone soil gas can be significant relative to the gas-phase diffusion flux of these organic vapors. To test this hypothesis, a series of field measurements and computer simulations were conducted to simulate and compare diffusion and advection fluxes at a trichloroethene-contaminated field site at Picatinny Arsenal in north-central New Jersey. Moisture content temperature, and soil-gas pressure were measured at multiple depths (including at land surface) and times for three distinct sampling events in August 1996, October 1996, and August 1998.