USGS Ohio Water Science Center

Is It Safe to Swim at the Beach?

06/12/2008 --Concern about water quality at recreational beaches along the Great Lakes is the focus of a new collaborative project aimed at improving information for beach managers faced with deciding whether to close beaches or issue advisories to protect public health. USGS scientists will focus on real-time assessments of water quality--such as the Nowcast system used at two Ohio Lake Erie beaches--by enhancing and expanding models that help beach managers decide if beach advisories or closures are necessary. They will continue to evaluate rapid analytical methods for bacterial indicators, such as E. coli, and identify processes that influence the occurrence and abundance of pathogens and bacterial indicators at beaches. This project is funded through the President's Ocean Action Plan and draws on the expertise of the USGS and other federal, state and local agencies. (more).

How Much Water is Consumed?

How Much Water Is Consumed? 05/22/2008 -- Ever wonder how much water is withdrawn for everyday uses such as food, ethanol, household chemicals, or paper products and is not returned? Or what type of uses are most likely to cause these losses? Information about consumptive water use (see images for examples) in the Great Lakes Basin can be found in a newly released fact sheet and report. Ohio Water Science Center hydrologists Kim Shaffer and Donna Runkle compiled and analyzed consumptive water use numbers from more than 100 sources to help determine the amount of water consumed in seven water-use categories. The fact sheet and report are among a series of products by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Assessment of Water Availability and Use Program for the Great Lakes Basin, a program designed to gain a clearer understanding of water-use, land-use, and climatic trends in our Nation’s water resources. (more).

Recreational Water Illness Prevention Week, May 19-25, 2008.

Recreational Water Illness Prevention Week, May 19-25, 2008. 05/15/2008 -- Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Recreational Water Illness Prevention Week highlights the importance of healthy swimming behaviors to prevent illness. The USGS Ohio Water Science Center is involved with several beach monitoring research projects to strengthen the science of beach water-quality monitoring. The “nowcasting” systems on Lake Erie at the bathing beaches of Edgewater (Cleveland, Ohio) and Huntington (Bay Village, Ohio) provide near-real-time estimates of water quality to the beach-going public.

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
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Phone (614) 430-7700
Fax (614) 430-7777