Water Resources of Idaho
Water Resources of Idaho |
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Electrofishing on the Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho. |
National Water-Quality Assessment - Northern Rockies Study Unit (NROK)
Project Focus
During the past 25 years, industry and government have made large financial investments intended to improve water quality across the Nation; however, many water-quality issues remain. To address the need for consistent and scientifically sound information for managing the Nation's water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey began a full-scale National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program in 1991. The goals of the NAWQA Program are to (1) describe current water-quality conditions for a large part of the Nation's freshwater streams and aquifers (water-bearing sediments and rocks), (2) describe how water quality is changing over time, and (3) improve our understanding of the primary natural and human factors affecting water quality.
Assessing the quality of water in every area of the Nation would not be practical; therefore, NAWQA Program studies are planned within a set of regions called study areas. These study area encompass 59 important river and aquifer systems that represent the diverse geography, water resources, and land and water uses of the Nation. The Northern Rockies study area has been selected to (1) include several important river systems; (2) represent a mixture of forested, agricultural, urban, and developing areas; (3) contain major sole-source aquifers such as the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie and Missoula Valley aquifers; and (4) assess the effects of mining practices on the quality of streams and aquifers. Study activities by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Northern Rockies began in late 1996.
Cooperative Study with the Washington Department of Ecology (WDOE)
Project Focus
The USGS NROK study unit sampling team, in cooperation with WDOE, sampled six sites, two of which were NROK NAWQA sampling sites, to determine urban impact on biological communities in the Spokane River. The work elements included in the biomonitoring of these sites are outlined in the sample matrix table below. The Spokane River has been extensively impacted by urban activities and upstream mining efforts in the Coeur d'Alene drainage. A baseline community assessment will be established at these sites, and samples will continue to be monitored for contaminants in aquatic tissue and sediment. This cooperative sampling effort will extend the data base for the NROK NAWQA and give the State of Washington a basis for doing ecological and human health risk assessments of the Spokane River. Please see the WDOE home page for further details about their past work on the Spokane River. A Spokane River fish advisory can be viewed at WDOE's website.
Sample matrix of 1999 and 1998 data collected from selected sites on the Spokane River by the USGS for both a cooperative study with the Washington Department of Ecology (WDOE) and the Northern Rockies National-Water Quality Assessment Program (NROK). Viewable map of sampling sites. [Red X - samples analyzed by WDOE. () - additional year sampled. Black X - samples for 1999 ] This table will be updated as data becomes available.
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Post Falls,ID
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Otis Orchards
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Greenacres
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Trentwood
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Green Street
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7 Mile Bridge
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|
| River Mile |
100
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96
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90
|
85
|
77
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63
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| USGS Site ID |
12419000
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12419500
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12420500
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12420800
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12422000
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12424500
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| Lat/Long |
47 42.13/116 59.67
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47 41.91/117 2.90
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47 40.70/117 9.26
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47 41.88/117 14.64
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47 40.77/117 22.32
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47 43.42/117 30.83
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| Periphyton community & chlorophyll a/biomass |
X
|
X
|
||||
| Macroinvertebrate community | ||||||
| Fish community |
.
|
|||||
| Habitat assessment |
X
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
X
|
| Continuous summer water temp - hourly* |
.
|
.
|
X
|
|||
| Trace elements - insects |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
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| Trace elements - fish tissue |
X
|
X
|
.
|
X
|
.
|
X(98)
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| Organochlorines - fish tissue |
X
|
X
|
.
|
X
|
.
|
(98)
|
| Trace elements - sediment |
X(98)
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
X(98)
|
| Organochlorines - sediment |
X(98)
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
X(98)
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| Trace elements & PCBs - whole rainbow trout, largescale suckers & mountain whitefish |
.
|
X
|
.
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
*The temperature tables are downloadable only and are in Excel format. The temperatures are taken hourly making these large files. They range in size from 128K to 270K.
Post Falls - Spokane River near Post Falls, ID
Otis Orchards - Spokane River above Liberty Bridge near Otis Orchards, Wa. (Harvard Road - Stateline)
Greenacres - Spokane River at Greenacres, Wa. (Barker Bridge)
Trentwood - Spokane River at Sullivan Road Bridge near Trentwood, Wa.
Green Street - Spokane River below Greene Street at Spokane, Wa.
7 Mile Bridge - Spokane River at 7-Mile Bridge, Wa.
Inquiries concerning this project should directed to:
USGS Idaho Water Science Center
230 Collins Road
Boise, Idaho, 83702
phone: 208-387-1300
fax: 208-387-1372
email
Terry Maret, Project Chief
Dorene MacCoy, Biologist
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: id.water.usgs.gov/projects/spokane/index.html
Page Contact Information: Idaho Webmaster
Page Last Modified: Wednesday, 29-Apr-2009 12:20:44 EDT