Next >>

With increasing concerns about freshwater cyanobacteria blooms, there is a need to identify which waterbodies are at risk for developing these blooms, especially those that produce cyanotoxins. To address this concern, we developed spatial statistical models using the US National...

In-situ measurements of optically active indicators of water quality are used to develop and validate spatiotemporally robust and cost-effective satellite remote sensing algorithms. Outputs from water quality algorithms routinely inform policymaker decisions that impact environme...

The first phase of a national scale Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model calibration effort at the HUC12 (Hydrologic Unit Code 12) watershed scale was demonstrated over the Mid-Atlantic Region (R02), consisting of 3036 HUC12 subbasins. An R-programming based tool was devel...

The aquatic environment has been recognized as a source of antibiotic resistance (AR) that factors into the One Health approach to combat AR. To provide much needed data on AR in the environment, a comprehensive survey of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), antibiotic resistance...

Our previous work has shown that the Jackson Lakes, in the Bayou Chico Watershed in NW FL, USA, are biogeochemically different and have different microbial communities, despite their proximity and common origin. All three lakes are polymictic, but the NE lake is fully freshwater,...

A financially and technically accessible method for screening powdered activated carbons for control of HAB toxins in water treatment.

Identification of potential pathogens that present risks to human health in recreational waters is necessary to advance in-depth water quality assessments. Despite the application of PCR techniques for environmental pathogen detection, only limited information is usually availabl...

The San Juan Bay Estuary (SJBE) is an interconnected system of streams, bays, lagoons, and canals located in a highly urbanized area in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Due to the rapid rate of urbanization, some communities across the SJBE have limited access to or are impacted by failure...

The U.S. Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research Control Act calls for robust approaches to forecasting cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). Accurate forecasting technology could save local communities healthcare costs through the early detection of cyanoHABs and the...

The ability to identify human sewage in environmental, municipal storm system drains, and other waste flows is important to protect public health and natural water resources.  A recent study reports the complete genome sequence of ΦB124-14, a bacteriophage capable of inf...

Microplastics (MPs) in aquatic environments accumulate a biofilm known as the plastisphere, a microbial community unique from that of the surrounding water and from biofilms that form on natural substrates. The plastisphere is known to accumulate pathogens and bacteria with antib...

Storm sewer system outfall discharges can be a source of human sewage potentially harboring clinically relevant antibiotic resistance (AR) bacteria and their genes.  These drainage networks primarily collect and discharge untreated stormwater from rain events (‘wet&rsq...

Eutrophication of inland lakes poses various societal and ecological threats, making water quality monitoring crucial. Satellites provide a comprehensive and cost-effective supplement to traditional in situ sampling. The Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (S2 MSI) offers unique ...

Communities across the United States and particularly in the Midwest continue to grapple with the complications associated with aging infrastructure. This includes the presence of lead (Pb)-bearing plumbing components such as lead service lines (LSLs), downstream galvanized iron ...

Chloraminated drinking water systems commonly implement a temporary free chlorine conversion (FCC) to control or minimize nitrification in the distribution system (DS), but unintended water quality changes may occur during the FCC, including increased disinfection byproducts (DBP...

Urban areas are built environments containing substantial amounts of impervious surfaces (e.g., streets, sidewalks, roof tops). These areas often include elaborately engineered drainage networks designed to collect, transport, and discharge untreated stormwater into local surface...

Wild pigs are an invasive species found globally that pose significant economic impact and a serious risk to local ecosystems, agriculture, and public health. Fecal contamination of water is one of these public health concerns as wild pigs have been shown to carry pathogenic ente...

Fertilizer-intensive agriculture leads to emissions of reactive nitrogen (Nr), posing threats to climate via nitrous oxide (N2O) and to air quality and human health via nitric oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH3) that form ozone and particulate matter (PM) downwind. Adding nitrification ...

Numerous qPCR-based methods are available to estimate the concentration of fecal pollution sources in surface waters. However, qPCR fecal source identification data sets often include a high proportion of non-detections (reactions failing to attain a prespecified minimal signal i...

The relative role of natural and anthropogenic drivers on freshwater biodiversity across different aquatic ecosystem types is not well understood. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Aquatic Surveys (NARS) offers a unique opportunity to compare lentic and lo...

Wildland fire smoke impacts millions of people in the United States every year. The EPA’s Office of Research and Development is addressing our increasingly smokey future with state-of-the-art instrumentation in a mobile air quality laboratory based at the PESD lab in Corval...

This research builds upon successful StRAP 3 (Appendix B) and RARE project tests of ORD's VELMA ecohydrology model to identify urban GI solutions for reducing stormwater contaminant loads impacting ESA-listed salmonids in the Puget Sound National Estuary. For example, recent resu...

Long-term monitoring datasets provide valuable opportunities to identify aquatic ecosystem responses to disturbance at broad spatial extents. The Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program (AREMP) is unique in this regard because the program re-surveys the same 1411 st...

EPA-ORD-CPHEA's Michael Pennino, Jana Compton and Robert Sabo were invited to present on groundwater nitrate at joint meeting with USDA-NRCS on May 22, 2024.  This meeting brings together the USDA Agricultural Water Quality National Team together with US EPA scientists and s...

Potential environmental impacts of oil spills are a concern for the Canadian public and the oil industry. Optimizing methods to treat residual oil that remains after an oil spill cleanup and to assess the potential impacts of residual oil in impacted freshwater systems are both h...