U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Fact Sheet 047-99

March 2000

Vermont

Water Quality Of Lake Champlain

An increase in the loading of phosphorus to Lake Champlain since the

early 19th century has resulted in

accelerated plant growth and waterquality problems in the lake. Municipal and industrial wastewater, urban

and agricultural runoff, and phosphate

detergents are responsible for the

elevated phosphorus levels. Since the

Clean Water Act of 1972 was implemented, the amounts of phosphorus

entering the Lake have been reduced,

but algal growth is still at nuisance

levels that reduce the clarity of the

water. Additional reductions in

phosphorus entering the lake are

necessary to inhibit further algal

growth, but an understanding of how

phosphorus is cycled and transported

in the Lake Champlain Basin is

needed to develop effective reduction

policies.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

collaborated with the University of

Vermont and the U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Natural Resources

Conservation Service, to study the

distribution of phosphorus in sediments of the Winooski River (fig. 1)

and to determine the relations between phosphorus concentrations,

land use, drainage areas, and streamflow. Results of this study have been

published in USGS Fact Sheet

FS-108-98.

In an effort to control pollutant

runoff, planners and regulators

implement Best Management Practices (BMPs). To determine if BMPs

are working, and to plan for the

reduction of specific pollutants, the

long-term effectiveness of BMPs

needs to be assessed. This need for

assessment is particularly acute in the

Lake Champlain Basin during the

next 20 years due to the establishment

of specific targets for reducing

phosphorus loads to the Lake.

The USGS, in cooperation with the

Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, will be studying the

long-term effectiveness of BMPs in

the Lake Champlain Basin. BMPs

will be implemented by the City of

Burlington at an urban site in Englesby Brook Basin. An agricultural site

also will be selected in the year 2000.

At each site, the USGS will continuously monitor streamflow and water

quality for phosphorus and other

nutrients.

Geologic Mapping

A new bedrock map of Vermont is

being compiled in a cooperative effort

by the USGS and the Vermont

Geological Survey. The 1:100,000-

scale map also is being compiled and

published in Geographic Information

System (GIS) digital form. This map

will provide baseline geologic

information for such uses as watersupply development and ecosystem

management. Funding for geologic

mapping in Vermont is provided by

the STATEMAP component of the

National Cooperative Geologic

Mapping Program. Digital geologic

map products at a scale of 1:24,000

(1 inch=2,000 feet) are available from

the Vermont Geological Survey.

Topographic Maps and SpatialData Products

USGS topographic maps covering

Vermont's Green Mountain National

Forest are scheduled for printing in

2000. In an agreement between the

USGS and the U.S. Forest Service

(USFS), the USFS will update the

maps to show additional features

required for national forest management.

The Vermont Center for Geographic

Information (VCGI), in cooperation

with the Federal Geographic Data

Committee, the USGS, the Vermont

Agency of Natural Resources, the

U.S. Department of AgricultureNatural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Vermont's Regional

Planning Commissions, is conducting

a pilot project to integrate locally

generated 1:5000-scale surface-water

data with the National Hydrography

Dataset (NHD). The NHD is a joint

USGS and U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (USEPA) project

to merge the USEPA's water-quality

information with USGS stream

centerlines for GIS analysis, reporting, planning, and monitoring. The

VCGI pilot project will produce a

NHD-compatible detailed surfacewater GIS product that accurately

corresponds with other state-GIS data

layers, such as soils, roads, bridges,

and orthophoto images.

Figure 1. A typical dairy farm along

the banks of the Winooski River,

Middlesex, Vermont.
science for a changing world

The USGS and the Vermont Tax

Department's Mapping Program have

established a partnership to produce

digital orthophoto quadrangles

(DOQ's) as derivatives of the State's

higher-resolution orthophoto imagery.

Digital orthophotos are spatially

accurate air photos that can be viewed

on a computer screen in combination

with other digital map features such

as streams, roads, and elevations for

accurate land-use assessment, soils

and habitat mapping, and map

revision. This innovative effort will

provide government agencies and the

public with image products of different resolutions and "footprints" of

areas from the same photo.

Flood-Hazard Assessments

On July 14–16, 1997, flooding in

northern Vermont caused severe local

damage and resulted in a Presidential

disaster declaration. Erosion and

deposition were significant at numerous locations, and local officials and

residents are concerned that the

accumulation of sand, gravel, and

cobbles in stream channels magnified

the severe flooding. Currently,

Vermont stream-management policies

restrict the removal of these materials.

In response to this concern, the

USGS, in cooperation with the

Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and the Federal Emergency

Management Agency, completed a

study of the transport of streambed

materials by rivers during floods.

Rivers selected for the study included

the Trout River in Montgomery, the

Wild Branch in Wolcott, and the

Lamoille River in Cambridge (fig. 2).

The USGS, in cooperation with the

Vermont Agency of Transportation, is

studying the flow-frequency characteristics of Vermont streams. Characteristics such as the magnitude and

frequency of floods are used in the

design of bridges, culvert openings,

roadbed elevations, embankments,

dams, or other structures near

streams. This information also is used

for floodplain mapping and management and establishing flood-insurance

rates. The USGS will develop flow

statistics for each of its stream-gaging

stations in Vermont and develop

relations between various basin

characteristics and flood flows at

those gaged sites. These relations will

then be used to estimate flood discharges at ungaged sites. The USGS

plans to develop software and a data

base that can easily be used to

develop flood-frequency estimates.

Minerals, Environment, And

Public Health

Historically, copper mining has been

important to the economy of Vermont, but drainage from abandoned

mines remains as a threat to the

environment. The USGS, in cooperation with the Elizabeth Mine Study

Group, a local citizens' group, is

evaluating acid mine drainage around

the Elizabeth Mine near South

Strafford. This study will serve as the

basis for decisions concerning future

reclamation of the site. Mining began

at the Elizabeth Mine in the late 18th

century and continued intermittently

until 1958. Currently, waters draining

the mine's waste piles are acidic and

laden with toxic heavy metals (fig. 3).

USGS studies are focused on understanding the chemical and hydrological processes by which the rocks and

waste piles weather to produce acidmine drainage. USGS efforts are

being coordinated with State and

Federal agencies and with Dartmouth

College.

Biological Diversity

An important issue in the northeastern United States is how best to

allocate limited resources for land

conservation in order to maintain

diverse plant and animal populations.

In Vermont, USGS scientists are

constructing computer-based models

to predict distributions of vertebrates

and to determine the degree of

protection through land conservation

needed for regions of high vertebrate

diversity. Digital maps describing

land-cover patterns, vertebrate

species distributions, and conservation areas are being used as tools to

help provide critically needed information on relations between the

distribution of terrestrial vertebrates

and habitats in the region. The results

of the project will assist government

officials and land managers in making

sound decisions for land conservation. The work is being supported by

the Vermont Department of Fish and

Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service.

Figure 2. Surveying the channel of the

Wild Branch in Wolcott, Vermont.

Figure 3. Copperas Brook carries

acid-mine drainage from the abandoned Elizabeth Copper Mine near

South Strafford into the Ompompanoosuc River. The yellow coating on

the rocks is iron-rich precipitate from

the drainage.
Vermont

Global Change Hydrology

The effect of global environmental

changes, such as possible global

warming, on ecosystems in the

United States is a focus of national

studies by the USGS. The Sleepers

River Watershed near Danville is one

of five national sites chosen for

investigations of water, energy, and

biogeochemical budgets as part of the

USGS Global Change Hydrology

Program. At the 43-square-mile

Sleepers River Research Watershed,

the USGS is investigating the flow of

water and solutes through the soil to

streams in forested and agricultural

landscapes (fig. 4). At Sleepers River,

the largest volume of streamflow and

ground-water recharge during the

year is generated during snowmelt.

Research in the Sleepers River

Watershed also is addressing how

streamflow is generated and the water

chemistry changes as basin size

increases and land cover shifts from

forest to agriculture. Results of the

study show that frozen ground

directly increases runoff of snowmelt

waters and reduces movement of

water to the ground-water system.

Soil water from the unsaturated soil

zone also is being collected to

analyze how water and chemicals

move down a hillslope to a stream.

Wildlife Concerns

Reports of amphibians with deformed

body parts (fig. 5) have become

increasingly common over most of

North America since 1995. The most

common deformities are misshapen,

extra, or missing limbs.

In Vermont, USGS scientists, in

collaboration with State and Federal

agencies, are surveying the extent of

the malformations in frogs and

investigating possible causes. Without

understanding such causes, it is

difficult to assess whether human

health also is at risk.

Malformations could be caused by

parasites or exposure to chemicals

released into the environment.

Substances such as herbicides,

insecticides, and fertilizers contain

chemical compounds that can mimic

animal growth hormones. Accumulation of these chemicals can lead to

abnormal limb development in frogs

and other wildlife. Current research

by USGS scientists is focusing on the

effects of chemicals used to control

mosquitoes and unwanted aquatic

plants.

The public can assist the USGS

amphibian monitoring program by

reporting occurrences of amphibian

malformations to the North American

Reporting Center: phone 1-800-238-

9801, e-mail narcam@usgs.gov, or

website www.npwrc.usgs.gov/

narcam.

A concern about the decline of the

American woodcock during the last

three decades across much of eastern

North America has encouraged USGS

scientists to study the demographics

and habitat requirements of the

popular game bird. In Vermont, the

research is being carried out in

cooperation with U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service (USFWS), the

Vermont Department of Fish and

Game, Dartmouth College, the

Wildlife Management Institute, and

the Ruffed Grouse Society. Two

separate woodcock populations are

recognized and managed by the

USFWS. Both populations have

dwindled since the early 1970's, with

a greater drop in the eastern region

(2.5 percent per year) than in the

central region (1.6 percent per year).

To understand better how habitat

modification is affecting the populations, USGS biologists are studying

sources of mortality, survival rates,

and patterns of woodcock movement

and habitat use. Results of these

studies will help management agencies set harvest regulations and

identify beneficial forest management

practices. The goal of the "American

Woodcock Management Plan" is to

stabilize and increase woodcock

populations to 1985 levels by the year

2005.

In Lake Champlain, salmonid fish

and predators, such as the sea lamprey, are being monitored to help

natural-resource managers understand

and maintain a balance between the

aquatic populations and a healthy

habitat. The USGS Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

in Burlington, in cooperation with the

Vermont Department of Fish and

Wildlife, the New York Department

of Environmental Conservation, and

the USFWS, provides assistance to

managers in the Lake Champlain

Basin on issues related to salmonid

Figure 4. Hydrologist installing soiltemperature probes in a soil pit at

Sleepers River.

Figure 5. Deformed frog with an extra

pair of hind limbs.
Printed on recycled paper

USGS office locations USGS State Representative

361 Commerce Way

Pembroke NH 03275

(603) 226-7807

FAX (603) 226-7894

USGS Home Page

http://www.usgs.gov

Reports and products

1-888-ASK-USGS

The USGS has 14

employees in Vermont

Montpelier

Burlington

fish restoration and sea lamprey

control.

Water Resources

The amount of water in Vermont's

rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs

is measured and monitored by the

USGS hydrologic data-collection

program. These data are used for:

• Forecasting floods and droughts.

• Flood-warning and flood-plain

management.

• Water-resources planning.

• Designing and operating projects

for water supply, hydroelectric

power, flood control, and pollution

control.

• Designing bridges and culverts.

• Hydrologic research.

Long-term records are needed to

evaluate the responses of hydrologic

systems to natural climatic variations

and human-induced stresses so that

potential problems can be defined

early and appropriate planning and

management actions can be taken by

local and State agencies. Streamflow

monitoring also provides baseline

data on the flow characteristics of

rivers and streams. In Vermont, the

USGS collects surface-water data

(fig. 6) from a network of 37 continuous-record streamflow stations, three

continuous-record lake-level stations,

and two partial-record streamflow

stations. The network is operated by

the USGS, in cooperation with the

Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, several towns,

municipalities, and utility companies.

Records are published monthly and

annually.

Real-time streamflow data, by way of

satellite and telephone telemetry, are

available on the USGS Vermont home

page for 26 locations throughout the

state at http://vt.water.usgs.gov

This information is critical for flood

forecasting and response duties of the

National Weather Service, Vermont

Emergency Management Agency, and

other State and local officials.

Changing patterns in water use

require that available supplies and

current and predicted future demands

be carefully evaluated. Without

adequate information, decision

makers are not equipped to resolve

critical issues related to water supply,

hydropower, snowmaking, water

quality, and the potential effects of

streamflow withdrawals on ecosystems. The USGS, in cooperation with

the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Water Supply

Division, is working to improve the

State's water-use information for the

management of water resources.

Assistance is provided to the State in

the collection, analysis, dissemination

of water use data, and the creation of

a statewide water-use data base.

The USGS, in cooperation with the

Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Water Supply

Division, is working to improve the

State's water-use information for the

management of water resources.

Assistance is provided to the State in

the collection, analysis, dissemination

of water use data, and the creation of

a statewide water-use data base. The

amount of total freshwater use, by

category, in Vermont in 1995 was 570

million gallons per day (fig. 7).

Figure 6. Technician is preparing to

measure streamflow by lowering a

current meter from a cable car

suspended over a river.

Figure 7. Total freshwater use in

Vermont, by category, in 1995.

Thermoelectric

80 percent

Other

1 percent

Domestic

8 percent

Commercial

6 percent

Industrial 3 percent

Agricultural 1 percent

Mining 1 percent