Water is our most fundamental natural resource, a resource that is limited. Challenges to our nation's water resources continue to grow, driven by population growth, ecological needs, climate change, and other pressures. The nation needs more and improved water science and information to meet these challenges. Toward a Sustainable and Secure Water Future reviews the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Water Resource Discipline (WRD), one of the nation's foremost water science organizations. This book provides constructive advice to help the WRD meet the nation's water needs over the coming decades. Of interest primarily to the leadership of the USGS WRD, many findings and recommendations also target the USGS leadership and the Department of Interior (DOI), because their support is necessary for the WRD to respond to the water needs of the nation.

Rivers provide about 60 percent of the nation's drinking water and irrigation water and 10 percent of the nation's electric power needs. The multiple and sometimes incompatible services demanded of rivers often lead to policy and management conflicts that require the integration of science-based information. This report advises the U.S. Geological Survey on how it can best address river science challenges by effectively using its resources and coordinating its activities with other agencies. The report identifies the highest priority river science issues for the USGS, including environmental flows and river restoration, sediment transport and geomorphology, and groundwater surface-water interactions. It also recommends two cross-cutting science activities including surveying and mapping the nation's river systems according to key physical and landscape features, and expanding work on predictive models, especially those that simulate interactions between physical-biological processes. The report identifies key variables to be monitored and data-managed. It proposes enhancements in streamflow, biological, and sediment monitoring; these include establishing multidisciplinary, integrated reach-scale monitoring sites and developing a comprehensive national sediment monitoring program. Finally, it encourages the USGS to be at the forefront of new technology application, including airborne lidar and embedded, networked, wireless sensors.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Environmental Health Mission Area (EHMA) is providing comprehensive science on sources, movement, and transformation of contaminants and pathogens in watershed and aquifer drinking-water supplies and in built water and wastewater infrastructure in the Greater Chicago Area. The focus of chapter 1 is on assessing point-of-use (tapwater) drinking-water exposure pathways for a broad range of potential environmental contaminants and exploring infrastructure-related factors that could alter or transform chemical constituents or microbial communities in drinking water (such as treatment plant technology, distribution system characteristics, private plumbing components, and point-of-use treatment)Pennsylvania has the second highest number of residential wells of any state in the Nation with approximately 2.4 million residents that depend on groundwater for their domestic water supply. The groundwater used for domestic water supply in Bradford County is obtained primarily from shallow bedrock and from unconsolidated (glacial) deposits that overlie the bedrock. As reported in chapter 2, data for 72 domestic wells were collected and analyzed for a wide range of constituents that could be evaluated in relation to drinking water health standards, geology, land use, and other environmental factors.The occurrence of arsenic and uranium in groundwater at concentrations that exceed drinking-water standards is a concern because of the potential adverse effects on human health. The Connecticut Department of Public Health reported that there are about 322,600 private wells in Connecticut. The State does not require that existing private wells be routinely tested for arsenic, uranium, or other contaminants. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed an assessment in 2016 on the distribution of concentrations of arsenic and uranium in groundwater from bedrock in Connecticut. Chapter 3 presents the major findings for arsenic and uranium concentrations from water samples collected from 2013 to 2015 from private wells.The circumstances and response to Flint's drinking water contamination involved implementation and oversight lapses at the EPA, the state of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and the city of Flint. Chapter 4 evaluates additional matters concerning the agency's management controls when responding to the Flint contamination incident.Federal agencies have identified several billion dollars in existing and future tribal drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs. Chapter 5 examines the extent to which selected federal agencies identified tribes' drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs and funded tribal water infrastructure projects, including tribes' most severe sanitation deficiencies.