From abstract: During fiscal years 1978 through 1981, the U.S. Geological Survey contracted for the acquisition and analysis of hydrologic data from 104 surface water stations, 26 ground water stations, and 15 precipitation gages as well as for several hundred miscellaneous surface water measurements of flow and water quality. The work was performed in Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, terminating at the end of the fiscal year 1981. This report is an assessment of this contracting effort from the standpoint of cost and of quality control measures employed to ensure an acceptable product.

From objectives and scope: This study was undertaken in response to U.S. Bureau of Land Management concerns for the water resources of the Wibaux-Beach area in the event of lignite mining. The objectives of the study were to: (1) Define the stratigraphic sequence within a few hundred feet above and below the minable lignite; (2) define the premining hydrologic and geochemical regime of the Wibaux-Beach deposit area; and (3) describe some of the hydrologic implications of the strip-mining process. A fourth objective, the establishment of historical data base with which to access any modifications to the system attributable to future mining, was accomplished as a byproduct of the other three.