Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Migration Of Arsenic And Lead In Surface Sediments At Three Kids Mine Henderson, Nevada, Douglas Brian Sims

Publications (WR)

This study focused on the distribution of arsenic and lead in surface sediments at Three Kids Mine in Henderson, Nevada. The mine site encompasses approximately 470 acres of desert and is situated above two developing communities (Lake Las Vegas and Calico Ridge) and the Las Vegas Valley's water source (Lake Mead).

Transport of arsenic and lead appears to have occurred within a limited range in both the eastern and western washes on the eastern and western sides of Three Kids Mine. Concentrations of arsenic range between 20 mg/kg (ppm) and 1130 mg/kg and between 20 mg/kg and 8400 mg/kg for …

Estimation Of Groundwater Velocities From Yucca Flat To The Amargosa Desert Using Geochemistry And Environmental Isotopes, Ronald L. Hershey, Steve Y. Acheampong

Publications (WR)

Geochemical modeling techniques were applied to groundwater flowpaths from Yucca Flat on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to the Amargosa Desert, south of the NTS to estimate groundwater flow velocities for independent comparison to velocities calculated by other methods. The groundwater flowpaths examined considered flow in the carbonate aquifer beneath Yucca and Frenchman flats mixing with flow from carbonate aquifers east and southeast of the NTS and discharging at wells south of the NTS border. The approach used the computer codes WATEQ4F and NETPATH to calculate chemical speciation, determine the saturation state of mineral phases, and simulate mixing and the …

Synthetic Organic Compounds: Las Vegas Wash And Lake Mead, National Water Quality Assessment Program (Nawqa): Nevada Basin And Range

Publications (WR)

The Nevada Basin and Range (NVBR) study unit of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is investigating the status of, trends in, and factors affecting water quality in the Las Vegas area. A principal objective of the investigation is to assess the effects of urbanization on the quality of area water resources.

Las Vegas Wash is the surface-water outlet for the Las Vegas area. The wash transports stormwater runoff, shallow ground-water discharge, and tertiary-treated sewage effluent from the Las Vegas area to Las Vegas Bay of Lake Mead on the Colorado River. Most of the flow—about 96 …

Investigations And Research In Nevada By The Water Resources Division, U. S. Geological Survey, 1982-83, Terry Katzer, Otto Moosburner, William D. Nichols

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The Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, is charged with (1) maintaining a hydrologic network in Nevada that provides information on the status of the State's water resources and (2) engaging in technical water-resources investigations that have a high degree of transferability. To meet these broad objections, 26 projects were active in Nevada during fiscal year 1982 in cooperation with 36 Federal, State, and local agencies. Total funds were $3,319,455, of which State and local cooperative funding amounted to $741,500 and Federal funding (comprised of Geological Survey Federal and cooperative programs plus funds from six other Federal agencies) amounted to …

An Ecological Analysis Of Relic Diatoms In Sediments Of Las Vegas Bay, Lake Mead, David Ross Hetzel

Publications (WR)

Relic diatoms in sediments of the inner Las Vegas Bay, near the Las Vegas Wash sewage inflow, were examined in order to assess historic trophic conditions in this area of Lake Mead. Diatom sedimentation rates and ratios of Araphidineae/Centrales (A/C) diatom groups were determined from sediment cores collected in the old wash channel 1.5 km from the sewage inflow (station 2), in a small cove 1.5 km further downstream (station 3) and in an adjacent embayment off Gypsum Wash (station 4). Diatom sedimentation rates generally increased from the bottom to the top of each core, but pronounced minima existed at …

Influence Of Las Vegas Wash Density Current On Nutrient Availability And Phytoplankton Growth In Lake Mead, John R. Baker, Larry J. Paulson

Publications (WR)

Density currents are commonly formed in reservoirs because of temperature or salinity induced density differences between inflowing and receiving waters. Anderson and Pritchard (1951) were among the first to demonstrate this in their investigations of density currents in Lake Mead. They found that the Colorado River formed an underflow in Lake Mead during the winter, an overflow in the spring and an interflow in the summer and fall. Wunderlich and Elder (1973) have since described the hydromechanics of these types of flow patterns, and density currents have been reported for several other large reservoirs (Carmack et al. 1979, Johnson and …

Final Report - Lake Mead Monitoring Program, James E. Deacon

Publications (WR)

The Lake Mead monitoring program has developed a substantial body of information on the physical, chemical and biological limnology of Lake Mead since 1972. This report summarizes pertinent aspects of that data, with emphasis on studies completed in 1975 -76. It is our continuing hope that the data developed by us will be useful to an ever broader group of users of the water resource represented by Lake Mead. We have been privileged to see our data have a significant influence in some very important water resource decisions over the past four years. There is every reason to expect that …

Micronutrients And Biological Patterns In Lake Mead, Hasan K. Qashu, Lorne G. Everett, J. S. Carlson, Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

Progressive increases in concentration of dissolved solids in the Colorado River water from Lake Powell to Imperial Dam seem to alter plankton dynamics and biological productivity of the river. Also, changes in biological productivity and micronutrients concentrations occur within the same reservoir. Development of a digital simulation model to predict micronutrients concentrations and biological productivity is necessary for diagnosing changes in plankton population and effluent-carrying capacity of the system.

The objectives of the study are: (1) to determine trace metal balance at different locations in Lake Mead, (2) to measure biological productivity and conduct plankton population counts at each sampling …

The 1963-64 Lake Mead Survey, J. M. Lara, J. I. Sanders, Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

The 1963-64 Lake Mead survey was run to compute the reservoir capacity. Results of the geodetic and hydrographic surveys and sediment sampling equipment are described. The geodetic survey showed Hoover Dam subsided an average of 118 mm since 1935. Sonic sounding, photogrammetry, and crosssectional profiling methods were used to run the hydrographic survey. Reservoir area and capacity tables were generated using an electronic computer. The present lake capacity is 29,755,000 acre-ft and the reservoir surface area is 162,700 acres at elevation 1229 ft. 2,720,000 acre-ft of sediments accumulated in the lake since 1935. A unit weight of 60 Ib/cu ft …

Water Chemistry Survey Of Boulder Basin, Lake Mead, P. R. Tramutt, Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

The survey results indicate that the impoundment of water behind Hoover Dam has not adversely affected the dissolved oxygen (DO) content and that water quality and DO content were uniform regardless of depth. The study made in April-May 1964 will provide water quality data of Lake Mead prior to releases from Lake Powell as a basis for evaluating Lake Powell's effect on water quality and limnology of Lake Mead. The performance of a DO analyzer was tested and found unsatisfactory at depths below 150 ft. Parameters tested by standard chemical analyses of water samples in the Denver Laboratory and by …

Available Water Supply Of The Las Vegas Ground-Water Basin Nevada, Glenn Thomas Malmberg

Publications (WR)

The Las Vegas ground-water basin as described in this report includes the southern part of Indian Spring Valley, Three Lakes Valley, the northern half of Ivanpah Valley, and Las Vegas Valley. These valleys in part are inferred to form a hydrologic unit that includes an area of about 3,000 square miles in the southern part of Clark County, Nev.

The valleys forming the Las Vegas ground-water basin are broad structural depressions surrounded by mountains. The climate of the region is arid, and precipitation in the basin lowlands rarely exceeds 5 inches per year. Drainage is interior except for occasional Hood …

Ground-Water Appraisal Of The Meadow Valley Area, Lincoln And Clark Counties, Nevada, F. Eugene Rush

Publications (WR)

This report, the 27th in the series of reconnaissance ground-water studies which were initiated following authorization by the I960 Legislature, gives the results of a study of the Meadow Valley area. This area includes eight valleys in southeastern Nevada - - Patterson, Spring, Eagle, Dry, Rose, Panaca, Clover, and Lower Meadow Valley - - all part of the Colorado River drainage system.

This study was made and report prepared by F. Eugene Rush, Geologist for the U. S. Geological Survey.

These reconnaissance ground-water resources surveys make available pertinent information of great and immediate value to many State and Federal agencies. …

Interbasin Movement Of Ground Water At The Nevada Test Site, Isaac J. Winograd

Publications (WR)

The present paper presents hydraulic evidence for the interbasin circulation of ground water through carbonate rocks of Paleozoic age at the Nevada Test Site. An integral part of this evidence is the discovery that aquifers in alluvium and tuff, formerly thought to be the principal aquifers at the Test Site, are semiperched above a thick tuffaceous aquiclude that separates them from the carbonate rocks.

This paper is based on one of the studies being made by the Geological
Survey for the Atomic Energy Commission. These studies seek to evaluate
the risk that may arise if ground water should be contaminated …

Comprehensive Survey Of Sedimentation In Lake Mead, 1948-49, W. O. Smith, C. P. Vetter, G. B. Cummings, U.S. Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

Reservoirs are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of the American landscape. Built for flood mitigation and to change a fluctuating river into a dependable source of water for irrigation, power, and other purposes, they are predestined, like natural lakes, to be destroyed sometime following their creation. Sedimentation sooner or later robs most lakes and reservoirs of their capacity to store water. The significance of sedimentation in the life of Lake Mead, the largest artificial reservoir in the world, was realized when the plan for the reservoir was conceived, and an aerial survey of the floor was made in 1935 before …

Water Levels And Artesian Pressure In Wells In Las Vegas Valley And In Other Valleys In Nevada, 1913-1945, T. W. Robinson, George B. Maxey, J. C. Fredericks, C. Harry Jameson

Publications (WR)

The rock formations of the earth are great natural reservoirs in which a part of the water derived from rain and snow is stored. Water levels and artesian pressure in wells register the stages of these natural reservoirs. The changes in water levels or artesian pressure are indicative of the depletion or replenishment of the natural reservoirs. Systematic and periodic measurements of water levels and artesian pressure in wells have been made in Nevada, by State and Federal agencies from time to time. However, only a few of these measurements have ever been published. Under the cooperative arrangement between the …

Progress Report On The Ground-Water Resources Of The Las Vegas Artesian Basin, Nevada, George B. Maxey, C. Harry Jameson

Publications (WR)

Whether the tremendously increased population acquired by Las Vegas in the years 1940 to 1942 will be retained cannot at present be foretold. However, the valley will undoubtedly be expected to support a considerably larger population than it did at any time prior to 1940, and continually increasing demands on the water supply for innumerable pcacetimc activities must be anticipated. Therefore, a sound evaluation of tho ground water resources of Las Vegas Valley is directly in line with the other wisely progressive planning programs which are now operating or are taking shape in the valley as well as in the …