UW Consortium presentation

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Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring Program

• Established in 2003
• Multi-year water monitoring program

2004 Fall Research Meeting on the Fox-Wolf
Watershed Oct. 6, 2004 UW-Oshkosh
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Overall Project Goal

• Establish a long-term monitoring program that
  improves our ability to address watershed quality
  issues (water quality, stream ecosystem
  integrity, etc.).

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Current Partners

• UW Green Bay
• UW Milwaukee
• Arjo Wiggins Appleton Inc.
• USGS
• GBMSD
• Oneida Tribe
• 5 High Schools
• County conservation departments

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Major Project Elements

• Continuous Monitoring
• USGS, UW Milwaukee, UWGB, Oneidas, GBMSD
• Watershed Modeling
• Stream ecosystem monitoring
• UW Milwaukee Stream Ecology Group
• School-based monitoring

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Event Monitoring Stations

• 3 USGS water years
• Oct. 03 through Sept. 06
• Stations
• Duck Creek at CTH FF
• Baird Creek at Superior Road (I-43)
• Apple Creek at CTH U (Campground)
• Ashwaubenon Creek at Creamery Road
• East River at Monroe Street (GBMSD)
• Beaver Dam Creek (upstream of confluence with
  Duck)

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Why Here?Monitoring on different scales to
identify source areas

• P Loads
• 450-600,000 kg/yr at mouth
• lt20 point
• 55 from U. Fox Wolf (88 NPS)
• 23 from below Wrightstown
• ½ TSS load
• lt4 of tot. basin area

Mouth
New London
DePere
Wrightstown
Oshkosh
Appleton
Berlin
Neenah/Menasha
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Objectives Water Quality and Load Monitoring

• Better understand cause/effect through event and
  continuous monitoring.
• Compare flow, P, and SS from different source
  areas (urban, urbanizing, rural/ag).
• Identify P sources at multiple spatial scales.
• Analyze trends between within sites.
• Compare loads to modeled loads.
• Assess validity of models.

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Methods / Parameters

• Daily stage / flow
• Low-flow / baseflow samples
• Event Samplers
• (10 runoff events/year)
• Analysis by GBMSD
• Total P, Dissolved P, TSS
• ?? Nitrate-Nitrite, Ammonia, TKN
• TSS correlation with SSC turbidity
• USGS will compute daily TP and sed. loads, and
  estimate DP loads

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Baird Creek Land Use
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Ashwaubenon Creek Land Use
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Duck Creek Land Use
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Apple Creek Land Use
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East River Land Use
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Beaver Dam Creek Land Use
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UW-Milwaukee Real-Time Monitoring

• YSI multi-parameter sondes
• Continuous stage height,
• turbidity,
• conductivity,
• temperature,
• pH,
• DO
• Fixed stations at USGS sites, real-time
  accessible
• 4 remaining sondes installed elsewhere, Baird Cr.
  N S Branch, Spring Brook

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School-Based Monitoring Program

• Structured to provide meaningful, long-term data
• Picture of existing conditions (Baseline)
• Changing conditions over time (Trends)
• Can be used by students, teachers, scientists and
  managers to answer questions about watershed
  dynamics and integrity. (Cause and effect
  relationships)

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Four Watersheds / Five Schools

• Spring, summer and fall monitoring for water
  quality and habitat at
• Baird (Luxemburg-Casco / Green Bay Preble)
• Duck Creek (Green Bay Southwest)

• Apple Creek (Appleton East)
• Spring Brook UF04(Markesan)
• Ashwaubenon Creek

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Program Approach

• Modeled after a successful program in Oregon
• Standardized equipment and methods
• Annual and periodic
  training sessions
• QA/QC Protocols
• Comparison to real-time data from UWM and USGS
• Equipment calibration and maintenance by staff

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School-Based Parameters

• Physical Elements
• Temperature
• Turbidity (Clarity)
• Specific Conductance
• Streamflow

• Chemical Elements
• pH
• Dissolved Oxygen
• Soluble Reactive P
• Nitrate
• Ammonia

Habitat and Biotic Elements Habitat Macroinvertebr
ates Amphibians Birds
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How will the data be shared?

• Watershed Symposium (May 19)
• Project Website
• www.uwgb.edu/watershed
• Integration of overall project elements
  (USGS, UWM, and school-based
  program)
• Online database
• Data review and quality criteria
• References and resources
• Reports

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Continuous Monitoring Program

• 5 Monitoring Stations
• Real-time flows
• Precipitation
• Sediment and
  nutrient loads
• Real-time sensors

Runoff
Rainfall
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USGS Monitoring StationsHydrograph and Event
Samples
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Ashwaubenon Creek downstream
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Preliminary Results
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USGS stations All samples
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USGS sites TSS (mg/L)All Samples
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USGS sites Total Phosphorus (mg/L) Low Flow
Conditions
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USGS sites Total Phosphorus (mg/L) Events
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USGS sites Total Phosphorus (mg/L) All Samples
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USGS sites dissolved P/total P ratioEvents
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USGS sites dissolved P/total P ratioLow Flow
Conditions
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USGS sites dissolved P/total P ratioAll Samples
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Supplementary Monitoring Baird Creek

• Compare rural and urbanizing conditions.
• Channel Morphology
• MS Thesis (Jessie Fink)

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P Loading TP vs DP

• USGS analysis
• Main stems
• 10-30 DP
• Smaller tribs in L. Fox
• 50-70 Dissolved
• BMPs for DP?

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Supplementary Monitoring Apple Creek

• Track DPTP ratio along flow path (source vs
  integrators, sources upstream vs downstream)
• Relate DPTP ratio to soils, land use, topography
• MS Thesis (Erika Sisel)
• High dissolved P in streams --- BMP effectiveness?

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Apple Cr. Study Monitoring Sites
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Supplementary Monitoring Apple Creek

• Collect grab samples at source and integrator
  sites at or near peak flow during runoff events
• Data from USGS site at Apple Creek campground
• TSS, total and dissolved phosphorus analysis
• Compare concentrations and DP/TP ratio at all
  sites and along flow paths
• Track land use conditions and relate to water
  quality findings
• Samples were collected during 5 runoff events
  (March to June, 2004)

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Apple Creek trib May 23 2004site 3 upstream
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Apple Creek trib May 23 2004site 3 downstream
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Apple Creek trib - May 23 2004 site 2b upstream
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Apple Creek Study Data Summary
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Apple Creek Study TSS (mg/L)
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Apple Creek Study Total P (mg/L)
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Apple Creek Study Dissolved P (mg/L)
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Apple Creek Study dP/TP Ratio
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For more information

• http//www.uwgb.edu/watershed/
• Questions?