Virginia Water Science Center
ABOUT THE VIRGINIA
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A Welcome from Mark Bennett, USGS Virginia Water Science Center DirectorThe USGS was established by Congress in 1879 to provide the Nation with reliable and impartial information in order to understand the Nation's natural resources. This information is used to protect life and property from natural disasters, manage the Nation's natural resources, and protect the environment. The USGS is a scientific organization concerned with providing credible, relevant, impartial, and timely information to all. Today, the USGS is known for its long-term and extensive data-collection networks, and research of water, mapping, biology and geology issues in Virginia and throughout the Nation. These efforts provide policy makers, managers, and scientists, and the general public with information needed to understand and make decisions about the State of Virginia's natural resources. Mission StatementsThe Virginia Water Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey provides scientific information to describe and understand water resources issues of interest to people of Virginia and the nation. We accomplish this through data collection and dissemination, hydrologic investigations, and water-resources research. The USGS Virginia Water Science Center investigates the occurrence, distribution, quantity, movement, and chemical and biological quality of Virginia's surface and ground water. Specific water resources activities of the Virginia Water Science Center include collection and analysis of long-term (prior to 1900) data for streams, reservoirs, estuaries, and groundwater; and short-term interpretive investigations of specific water-resources issues on regional, State, and national levels. Investigations include the study of urbanization and flooding, water quality of the Virginia's major river basins, sedimentation of rivers and lakes, and contamination of surface water and groundwater. The Virginia Water Science Center's main office is in Richmond, with a satellite office in Marion. I hope that you find the information on the following pages to be helpful, interesting and informative. If you have any comments or suggestions on how the pages could be improved to better serve your needs, please contact the USGS Virginia Water Science Center Web Development Team. Please browse these pages and let me know how I can make this service more useful to you. |