USGS publishes two new reports on Wisconsin's waters

The United States Geological Survey has issued two new reports on Wisconsin waters:

Flood of June 2008 in Southern Wisconsin
By Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Marie C. Peppler, John F. Walker, William J. Rose, Robert J. Waschbusch, and James L. Kennedy
From the Abstract:
In June 2008, heavy rain caused severe flooding across southern Wisconsin. The floods were aggravated by saturated soils that persisted from unusually wet antecedent conditions from a combination of floods in August 2007, more than 100 inches of snow in winter 2007–08, and moist conditions in spring 2008. The flooding caused immediate evacuations and road closures and prolonged, extensive damages and losses associated with agriculture, businesses, housing, public health and human needs, and infrastructure and transportation.

Record gage heights and streamflows occurred at 21 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages across southern Wisconsin from June 7 to June 21. Peak-gage-height data, peak-streamflow data, and flood probabilities are tabulated for 32 USGS streamgages in southern Wisconsin. Peak-gage-height and peak-streamflow data also are tabulated for three ungaged locations.

Environmental Settings of Selected Streams Sampled for Mercury in Oregon, Wisconsin, and Florida, 2002–06
By Amanda H. Bell and Michelle A. Lutz
From the Abstract:
From 2002 through 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program conducted studies investigating mercury biogeochemistry and food-web bioaccumulation in eight streams from three distinct geographic areas of the United States. These streams varied greatly in environmental characteristics, including land-cover, hydrologic, climatic, and chemical characteristics. They ranged from a clear-water, high-gradient, low-percentage wetland stream in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, to an urban stream near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to a low-gradient, blackwater stream draining the Okefenokee and Pinhook Swamps along the Georgia-Florida border. This report summarizes the environmental settings of these eight streams.