Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Shoreline Erosion In Virginia, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Gary L. Anderson

Reports

Virginia has over 5,000 miles of tidal shoreline. Several different shore types occur in the Tidewater region including the low-lying barrier islands of the Eastern Shore, the ocean front headland-barrier spit of southeastern Virginia, and the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries which range from high bluffs to tidal marshes. In order to put shore erosion in proper perspective as a natural phenomenon, one must examine the recent geologic history of the region.

Much of shoreline erosion is a direct product of high energy storms like hurricanes and northeasters. The rate and amount of erosion along a specific …

Environmental Quality 1979 - Hillsborough County Florida, Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission

Reports

During 1979 at least 65,948 air quality samples were collected and analyzed from 146 sampling stations throughout Hillsborough County. Enclosed maps attempt to depict the cleaner and dirtier areas of Hillsborough County, while data summaries show where and how often air quality standards were exceeded during 1979.

During 1979, 54 salt water sampling stations were monitored for 40 parameters resulting in 25,151 samples; while 24 fresh water stations were monitored for 53 parameters resulting in 7,588 samples. Sampling averages for each parameter were ranked from lowest to highest (1-54), with the similar rankings assigned to tied average parameters. Lowest ranking …

Ute Self-Determination In Setting Tribal Resource Development Policy, Herbert H. Fullerton, Mac Mckee, Roger D. Hansen

Reports

The Ute Indian Tribe of northeastern Utah has large land holdings rich in water and energy resources. Revenues from these sources have created capital that can potentially be used by the Tribe to further develop its resources and expand its agricultural and business enterprises. Realities, however, complicate this simple scenario in that the Tribal goals are broader than pure economic gain and that increased incomes may mean sacrifices in terms of these other goals. The Tribe faces the problem of how best to develop its water resources in a way that best meets its multiplicity of needs.

The research team …

Developing Crab Creek : Fifteen Points Of View On Economy And Ecology In An Estuary : A Simulation For Advanced Students Exploring Coastal Resource Management Decisions In Virginia, Frances Lee Lawrence

Reports

Crab Creek County is a hypothetical small Virginia county on. the Chesapeake Bay. This· simulation explores the coastal management issues involved in developing a point of land in Crab Creek County fronting on the Chesapeake Bay to the North, and Crab Creek to the South. The game is based on key Virginia and federal laws and agencies affecting coastal resources, and provides insights into the human and technical interactions involved in the "permitting" processes. Players fill fifteen roles representative of private interests as well as local, state, and federal activities. more...

Ecological Study Of The Tidal Segment Of The James River Encompassing Hog Point (Site Of The Surry Nuclear Power Station) : Completion Report, Robert A. Jordan, Patrica A. Goodwin, Charles E. Sutton

Reports

The Surry Power Station discharges cooling water into the transition zone of the James River. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos, and fouling organism communities were sampled during the years 1969 through 1978, which encompassed a preoperational and an operational period. Temporal changes in the biotic communities followed seasonal patterns of temperature and salinity in the study area, and reflected inherent reproductive patterns of the organisms. Spatial patterns reflected the transport of organisms from the river in the vicinity of the intake to the zone encompassed by the discharge plume, as well as periodic bursts of meroplankton generation in the cooling water canals. …

Historical Shoreline Changes And Wave Refraction Analysis, Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay : Final Report, Victor Goldsmith, Caroline H. Sutton, Kevin Kiley

Reports

The objective of this study was to develop wave and sediment transport estimates (based on wave refraction analysis and historical shoreline change analysis) for the western shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay Smith Island area.

Use Of Extreme Value Theory In Estimating Flood Peaks From Mixed Populations, Ronand V. Canfield, D. R. Olsen, R. H. Hawkins, T. L. Chen

Reports

The flood magnitude for a given frequency or return period is estimated by fitting a probability distribution to the historical annual flood series. The log-Pearson type III distribution has been selected by the Water Resources Council for general use by the federal government, but practitioners should examine an annual flood series and use alternative distributions where they will produce better estimates. Empirical goodness of fit is one criterion for choosing a distribution, but the reasonableness of the assumptions theoretically associated with the form of the distribution should also be considered. In theory, extreme-value distributions are particularly applicable to flow series …

Municipal Water Resources Analysis For Area Potentially Impacted By Mx Missile Complex In Utah, Trevor C. Hughes, V. A. Narasimhan, William J. Grenney, L. Douglas James

Reports

Scope of Report: This report analyzes the impact of the proposed MX Missile complex upon existing municipal water supply and waste treatment systems serving selected communitites either near the perimeter or within the Utah portion of the proposed MX complex boundary. As can be seen from the location map in Figure 1, possible sites for elements within the total MX missile complex have been identified in 14 Utah desert valleys in the five counties, from north to south, of Tooele, Juab, Millard, Beaver, and Iron. The 60,000 people, who live in these counties according to the 1975 census, are largely …

Evaluation Of Livestock Runoff As A Source Of Water Pollution In Northern Utah, Stephen T. Wieneke, Dennis B. George, Daniel S. Filip, Brad Finney

Reports

A mathematical model was developed to predict the impact of dairy and beef cattle feedlot runoff on receiving streams. The mathematical expressions used in the model describing runoff quantity and quality were not only a function of single rain or snow precipitation events but also consecutive events prior to the runoff occurrence. The runoff quantity and quality were also a function of feedlot surface. Computer simualtions indicate that pollutants from feedlot runoff may have a significant impact on receiving streams during winter months. Runoff from feedlots located within the study area, however, had little impact on water quality in the …

Flood Damage Mitigation In Utah, L. Douglas James, Dean T. Larson, Daniel H. Hoggan, Terrence L. Glover

Reports

Utah is subjected to flash flooding in mountain canyons, mudflows and shallow water flooding on lowlands at the canyon outlets, storm water flooding after thunderstorms in urban areas, and prolonged periods of inundation in certain lowland areas during snowmelt periods. In response to these problems, individuals are making private land use and flood proofing decisions, larger communities have storm water collection programs, three federal agencies are involved in structural flood control, and the Federal Emergency management Agency is managing a National Flood Insurance Program designed to promote community floodplain management efforts. A framework was deceloped of the dynamically interactive feedback …

Principles Of Lake Quality Management, D. B. Porcella

Reports

No abstract provided.

Management Of The Hydrologic System In Areas Subject To Coal Mining Activities, Rollin H. Hotchkiss, Eugene K. Israelsen, J. Paul Riley

Reports

Publicity given to the detrimental effects of mining activities on the environment has tended to overshadow somewhat the hydrologic opportunities and benfits that could be associated with these activities. For example, many areas disturbed by surface mining have proved to be excellent recharge areas for groundwater aquifers. The degree to which mine sites can be exploited to improve management of the hydrologic system depends on both the local geology and the mining techniques used. The report examines the effects of present mining activities on the associated hydrology system, and identifies specific mining procedures and management techniques which not only minimize …

Evaluation Of Particular Mulches As Plant Growth Media And Erosion Inhibitors, C. Earl Israelson, William F. Campbell, Eugene K. Israelsen, Ronald V. Canfield, David Ianson

Reports

Introduction: Increasing public awareness of the desireability of protecting the environment from soil erosion caused by wind and water has centered attention on large construction projects such as highways and housing subdivisions, as well as on individual building sites and parking lots. If unattended, sediment produced from these areas pollutes surface water, restricts drainage, fills reservoirs, damages adjacent land, and upsets the natual ecology of lakes and streams. The search continues for products and practices that will prevent or lessen the amount of sediment leaving construction sites. Products currently in use include chemical as well as organic materials, and they …

Vulnerability Of Water Supply Systems To Droughts, David S. Bowles, Trevor C. Hughes, W. Robert James, Donald T. Jensen, Frank W. Haws

Reports

This summary completion report describes the project work completed in three areas: 1) the development and preliminary testing of drought severity and vulnerability indices, 2) the impacts of Utah's 1977 drought, and 3) an operation comparison of stochastic streamflow models. The drought indices were evaluated for three municipal and three irrigation water supply systems in Utah. It was concluded that a continuous loss function to define the effects of water shortage would be more appropriate than the existing assumption that drought-related lossed occur suddenly at a certain degree of water shortage. Information on the impacts of Utah's 1977 drought was …

Development Of Procedures To Evaluate Salinity Management Strategies In Irrigation Return Flows, V. A. Narasimhan, A. Leon Huber, J. Paul Riley, J. J. Jurinak

Reports

The salinity added irrigation return flows is a major problem in rivers draining agricultural lands throughout the arid regions of the world, and many irrigation water management alternatives have been proposed for reducing downstream salinity problems. The merits of these alternatives, however, can only be judged from reliable information on their actual effects on the salinity in rivers receiving the drainage water and the water withdrawn from the river by downstream users. Hydrosalinity models are widely used to estimate these effects to guide the selection of a policy on management of irrigation return flows. The purpose of this research was …

Evaluation Of Legibility Of Reflectorized License Plates, C. Earl Israelsen, Ronald V. Canfield

Reports

The rainfall simulator at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, was utilized in evaluating various types of license plates. This unique facility enables the production of controlled uniform rainfall inside the laboratory. For this experiment, rainfall rates of 0" (dry), 1/2" and 2" per hour were used to compare reflective performance of reflective sheeting (RS), beads-on-paint (BOP), and new paint (NP) license plates under dark nighttime conditions. Both new and used license plates were evaluted. The three types of new plates were made and embossed at the Idaho State Prison using stanard state manufacturing procedures. The …

Model Of Drawdown In Well Fields Influenced By Boundaries: Technical Description And User's Manual, Najwan T. Shareef, David S. Bowles

Reports

This model is designed to calculate the drawdown of a piezometric surface or water table at a given point of interest in a well field. Many different well and aquifer hydraulic conditions can be considered. The effect of field boundaries is solved by the image well theory. Many points of interest, well (recharge or injection), boundaries (barrier or recharge), and time increments as well as constant and variable pumping rate case have been included in the model. The drawdown at a point of interest can be decomposed into the following compenents for each real well due to the effect of: …

Water Demand At Recreation Developments, Simon Lam, Trevor C. Hughes

Reports

Design criteria for drinking water systems at recreation developments, particularly summer home type, cause frequent confrontations with regulatory agencies. Developers claim extremely low water use rates due to low occupancy rates, but regulatory agencies are concerned about changes over time from essentially weekend use to more permanent residency and also about occasional peak day water demands similar to those of municipal systems. Little empirical data have been available to resolve such questions. This study included the gathering and analysis of both historic water use measurements and additional daily and instantaneous measurements during peak seasons at 11 Utah and one Wyoming …

A Preliminary Study On Expanding And Financing State Water Development, Daniel H. Hoggan, Kirk R. Kimball, Jay M. Bagley

Reports

The effects of recent energy price increases, domestic inflation rates, financial market fluctuations, and changing public attitudes toward federally sponsored water resource development and management have brought economic and financial consideratiosn to the forefront of Western water management issues. Recently enacted federal policies place increased responsibility on the states and localities for the development and management of their water resources. A response common to many of the western states has been to stengthen traditional, and often small, water financing and development programs. In creating and sustaining such a posture, however, state governments must address the important questions pertaining to the …

Weather Modification By Cloud Seeding, Arnett S. Dennis

Reports

It is an understatement to say that people are confused about cloud seeding. While it has been called "the crime of the century" and outlawed in Pennsylvania, the governments of the dry, western part of the United States continue to spend tax revenues on cloud seeding to increase water supplies. During the past five years, I have talked with officials responsible for decisions regarding cloud seeding programs in about 15 states of the U.S.A., in a dozen other countries, and in the World Meteorological Organization. Some of the officials involved are experts in atmospheric physics, but most are not. Members …

Some Historical Accounts Of The Natural Conditions In Tampa Bay And Hillsborough County, Michael Heerschap

Reports

As we might expect as we read on in the literature we find that as Tampa grows, then the animals and fish which were so abundant slowly disappear. An interesting feature of these accounts are the stores told of mass killings of animals and birds for no reason except for fun. Also included are some tales of our notorious insect life and thundershowers. This report is a collection of some of the more interesting quotes from various sources.

Kepone Monitoring At Skiffs Creek : In Fulfillment Of Contract Number Dacw65-79-C-0027, Harold D. Sloan, Michael E. Bender

Reports

Kepone entered the James River estuary from point sources of production and through runoff from unauthorized disposal sites in the vicinity of Hopewell, Virginia. The total quantity of Kepone released to the river is not known, however, about 1.5 x 106 kg were produced between 1966 and 1975. At present we estimate that 30,000 kg reside in contaminated sediments of the estuary.

Bed sediments are contaminated from the source at Hopewell to Hampton Roads, a distance of 88 kilometers. Patterns of contamination vary with sediment type and distance from the source. Major Kepone sinks exist in the Jamestown - Dancing …

Elizabeth River Surface Circulation Atlas, John C. Munday Jr., Hayden H. Gordon, Charles J. Alston

Reports

The Elizabeth River Surface Circulation Atlas is a compendium of maps which detail the surface circulation throughout the main branch of the Elizabeth River, in the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Data for the Atlas maps were obtained directly from field experiments using Remote Sensing and dye-emitting low-windage surface drogues. The maps show surface Lagrangian trajectories under various combinations of wind and tide. The Atlas is not intended to duplicate NOAA tidal current tables, but rather to supplement the tables with empirical trajectory data at increased spatial resolution. Knowledge of surface currents under different tide and wind conditions enables a …

Influence Of Unsaturated Hydraulic Properties On Infiltration From Circular Surface Areas, Abdolhossien Nassehzadeh-Tabrizi, Roland W. Jeppson

Reports

The effects and interactive effects on infiltration of parameters in the Brooks-Corey equation for defining the hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils are investigated by analyzing the results of numerical solutions of the unsaturated flow characteristics resulting from water applied on a circular surface area. The soil parameters are allowed to vary continuously as a function of depth. The parameters that have been allowed to vary separately and in pairs are: (1) The pore size distribution exponent, (2) Pb- The bubbling pressure, (3) Sr- The residual saturation, (4) n- The soil porosity and (5) Ko- The saturated hydraulic conductivity. The conclusions …

Alteration Of Microbial Populations In Surface Mine Revegetation And Their Effects On Nitrogen Cycling, Margaret Mary Mccarthy

Reports

Surface mining in the arid west results in soil disruption by alterning structure, water-holding capacity and nutrient availability. Intensive revegetation efforts may end in marginal rehabilitation due to adverse chamical and physical properties of the distrubed soil. Monitoring microbial activitiy and soil chemistry of revegetated and undisturbed areas of a surface mine in Southeastern Montana enabled delineation of major factors participating in soil fertility were determined. In the undisturbed site, the upper few centimeters of the soil profile contained most of the nutrients and the microbial populations. In the revegetated sites, due to mixing of various soil horizons, the concentration …

Use Of Saline Water In Energy Development, C. Earl Israelsen, V. Dean Adams, J. Clair Batty, Dennis B. George

Reports

Maps were made of the Upper Colorado River Basin showing locations of coal deposits, oil and gas, oil shale, uranium, and tar sand, in relationship to cities and towns in the area. Superimposed on these are locations of wells showing four ranges of water quality; 1,000-3,000 mg/l, 3,000-10,000 mg/l, 10,000-35,000 mg/l, and over 35,000 mg/l. Information was assembled relative to future energy-related projects in the upper basin, and estimates were made of their anticipated water needs. Using computer models, various options were tested for using saline water for coal-fired power plant cooling. Both cooling towers and brine evaporation ponds were …

Management Of Rural Domestic Water Systems In Utah, Trevor C. Hughes

Reports

Introduction: There are now more than 400 community type public drinking water systems in Utah. Considerable state and federal assistance is available for construction or renovation of such systems, but once the system is constructed and the consulting engineer leaves, the managers of the smaller systems find themselves quite isolated from sources of professional assistance. The larger systems have a revenue base which can provide ongoing services of a consultant or salaried engineer and well trained operators. The smaller systems, particularly low density rural systems where the length of pipeline per user is very high, usually find themselves barely able …

A Framework For Risk Analysis Of Earth Dams, Jon C. Howell, Loren R. Anderson, David S. Bowles, Ronald V. Canfield

Reports

This purpose of this thesis is to present in a logical and straightforward manner, the types of probabilistic, deterministic and judgment methods which should be part f a risk analysis process for earth dam planning, design, construction and operation. In doing this, an attempt was made to include all of the elements (components of the risk analysis procedure defined herein) which were considered to be important. Descriptions of these elements as well as how they are used to estimate probabilities for the occurrence of each of three failure conditions (i.e. no failure, partial failure, complete failure) are also presented. Explanations …

Research On Increased Winter Orographic Precipitation By Cloud Seeding (Fy 1980), Geoffrey E. Hill

Reports

This research continues the development of new instrumentation relevant to the advancement of cloud seeding technology and the analysis of data collected to better understand cloud seeding potential in winter orographic clouds. Instrumentation development included the state of construction of a NOAA type dual frequency radiometer for the continuous measurement of supercooled liquid water and the completion of an expendable balloon-borne system for measuring vertical profiles of supercooled liquid water. The analysis of data collected on the project was directed primarily at the interpretation of the vertical profiles of supercooled liquid water and vertical motion. Results indicate that sharp vertical …

Preliminary Study Of The Northern Utah Hail Suppression Project, Geoffrey E. Hill

Reports

This study represents an examination of the possibilities for evaluating the northern Utah summertime rain-enhancement hail-suppression project. This study is