Red Rock and Saylorville Reservoirs Des Moines River, Iowa
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Donna Schulze Lutz June 2010 Annual Report Water Quality Studies— Red Rock and Saylorville Reservoirs Des Moines River, Iowa Contracts: W912EK-09-0001 W912EK-09-0002 Department of the Army Rock Island District Corps of Engineers Rock Island, Illinois 61201 Annual Report Water Quality Studies— Red Rock and Saylorville Reservoirs Des Moines River, Iowa Donna Schulze Lutz Assistant Scientist January 20, 2009–December 1, 2009 Submitted to Department of the Army Rock Island District Corps of Engineers Rock Island, Illinois 61201 Contracts: W912EK-09-0001 Environmental Engineering Section W912EK-09-0002 Department of Civil Engineering ISU-ERI-Ames-10325 Engineering Research Institute Iowa State University, Ames Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries can be directed to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, 3280 Beardshear Hall, 515 294-7612. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES xi LIST OF TABLES xiii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. BASIN CHARACTERISTICS 7 3. PROJECT SCOPE 9 4. HISTORY OF THE DATABASE 14 5. PARADOX DATABASE: RIVER WATER QUALITY MONITORING (DMRWQN) 29 6. FIELD OPERATIONS 32 6.1. Sampling Stations 32 6.2. Sampling Methods 32 6.3. Field Analyses 33 6.4. Safety 33 7. LABORATORY ANALYSES 35 7.1. Participating Laboratories 35 7.2. Quality Assurance 35 7.3. Analytical Methods 36 8. DISCUSSION OF DATA 42 8.1. Data Presentation 42 8.2. Water Quality Standards and Criteria 47 8.2.1. Federal 47 8.2.2. State 62 8.2.3. Compilation of Standards and Criteria 68 8.3. Iowa Water Quality 80 8.3.1. Iowa’s Ambient Water Monitoring Program 80 8.3.2. Recent Assessments 83 Saylorville Reservoir 83 Red Rock Reservoir 97 8.4. Weather Conditions 102 8.5. River Discharge 109 8.6. Reservoir Elevation 116 iv Page 8.7. Sampling Depth 117 8.8. Water Temperature 120 8.9. Suspended Solids 121 8.10. Turbidity 126 8.11. Secchi Disk and Transparency Tube Depths 128 8.12. Dissolved Oxygen 134 8.13. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Carbonaceous) 136 8.14. Carbon Dioxide and pH 137 8.15. Alkalinity 138 8.16. Hardness 139 8.17. Specific Conductance 140 8.18. Total Organic Carbon 141 8.19. Ammonia Nitrogen 142 8.20. Un‐ionized Ammonia Nitrogen 145 8.21. Nitrite Plus Nitrate Nitrogen 146 8.22. Organic Nitrogen 151 8.23. Total Nitrogen 152 8.24. Total Phosphate and Orthophosphate 154 8.25. Dissolved Silica 156 8.26. Loading 157 8.27. Heavy Metals 181 8.28. Additional Inorganic Constituents 188 8.29. Ion Balances 188 8.30. Mineral Standard 189 8.31. Chlorophyll 189 8.32. Cyanobacteria and Microcystin 195 8.33. Fecal Coliform and Escherichia coli Bacteria 198 8.33.1. Introduction 198 8.33.2. Criteria and Standards 199 8.33.3. Results from Monitoring in 2009 200 Lake and River Samples 200 Beach Samples 201 Quality Control 212 v Page 8.34. Pesticides in Fish 212 8.34.1. Introduction 212 Pesticide Use in Iowa 213 8.34.2. Selected Pesticide Parameters 220 8.34.3. Sampling Program 224 8.34.4. Results from Monitoring in 2009 225 Uniformity of Fish Samples 225 Results Compared to Standards and Criteria 226 Pesticides in Carp Results 229 Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Carp Results 235 Comparative Study of Two Age Classes 238 Pesticide Scan by EPA 238 8.35. Mercury in Fish 240 8.35.1. Introduction 240 8.35.2. Historical Data (1984–1994) 241 8.35.3. Recent Data (2004–2005) 242 8.35.4. Data from 2009 242 8.36. Gas Saturation and Fish Kills 243 8.36.1. Introduction 243 8.36.2. Gas Pressure Data for the Period of Record 248 Upstream from Saylorville Dam (Station 1) 248 Downstream from Saylorville Dam (Station 5) 248 At Red Rock Reservoir in the Main Basin (Station 8S) 252 Below Red Rock Dam (Station 9) 252 8.36.3. Recent Gas Pressure Results 253 8.37. Trophic State Indices 260 8.37.1. TSI (Chlorophyll) 263 8.37.2. TSI (Phosphorus) 263 8.37.3. TSI (Secchi) 263 8.37.4. TSI Deviations 264 8.38. Water Quality Index 264 9. ACKNOWLEDGMENT 266 vi Page 10. GENERAL AND SPECIFIC REFERENCES 267 11. RELATED PUBLICATIONS 281 Journal Articles (by Project Personnel) 281 Journal Articles (by Others Using DMRWQN Data) 281 Theses 282 Annual Reports 283 Conference Proceedings 287 Undergraduate Student Papers 289 12. DISTRIBUTION 290 APPENDIX A: TABLES AND PLOTS FOR CONTRACT PERIOD 292 A1. Sampling dates and equivalent week numbers 293 Time of Collection 296 Cloud Cover 297 Ice Cover 298 River Flow 299 Lake Elevation 301 Water Temperature 303 Sampling Depth 306 Suspended Solids 307 Turbidity 309 Secchi Depth 311 Transparency Tube Depth 313 Dissolved Oxygen 315 Oxygen Gas Saturation 318 Biochemical Oxygen Demand 320 pH 322 Carbon Dioxide 325 Phenolphthalein Alkalinity 326 Total Alkalinity 327 Calcium Hardness 330 Total Hardness 331 Specific Conductance 334 Total Organic Carbon 335 vii Page Ammonia Nitrogen 338 Un‐ionized Ammonia 341 Nitrite + Nitrate Nitrogen 342 Organic Nitrogen 345 Total Nitrogen 347 Total Phosphate 349 Total Phosphorus 351 Orthophosphate 352 Orthophosphorus 354 Dissolved Silica 355 Suspended Solids Transport 357 Ammonia Nitrogen Transport 359 Nitrite + Nitrate Nitrogen Transport 361 Organic Nitrogen Transport 363 Total Nitrogen Transport 365 Total Phosphate Transport 367 Soluble Cadmium 369 Soluble Copper 370 Soluble Lead 371 Soluble Mercury 372 Chloride 373 Potassium 374 Sodium 375 Sulfate 376 Chlorophyll a 377 Chlorophyll b 378 Chlorophyll c 379 Pheophytin a 380 Corrected Chlorophyll a 381 Fecal Coliform 383 Escherichia coli 385 Total Gas Saturation 387 Nitrogen Gas Saturation 388 viii Page P 390 Nitrogen Gas 391 Oxygen Gas 392 Barometric Pressure 393 TSI (Chlorophyll) 394 TSI (Phosphorus) 395 TSI (Secchi) 396 Water Quality Index 398 APPENDIX B: LONG‐TERM MONTHLY MEAN DATA 1967–2009 400 B.1. Introduction 403 B.2. Monthly Mean Data 403 B1. Minimum and maximum record monthly means established in the long‐term database during the 2009 water year. 405 B2. Minimum and maximum record annual means established in the long‐term database during the 2009 water year. 406 River Flow 407 Lake Elevation 413 Water Temperature 415 Suspended Solids 421 Turbidity 429 Transparency Tube Depth 437 Secchi Disk Depth 443 Dissolved Oxygen 445 Oxygen Gas Saturation 455 Biochemical Oxygen Demand 463 pH 471 Total Alkalinity 481 Calcium Hardness 487 Total Hardness 493 Specific Conductance 499 Total Organic Carbon 505 ix Page Ammonia Nitrogen 511 Un‐ionized Ammonia Nitrogen 517 Nitrite + Nitrate Nitrogen 523 Organic Nitrogen 529 Total Nitrogen 535 Total Phosphate 543 Orthophosphate 551 Dissolved Silica 557 Suspended Solids Transport 563 Ammonia Nitrogen Transport 569 Nitrite + Nitrate Nitrogen Transport 575 Organic Nitrogen Transport 581 Total Nitrogen Transport 587 Total Phosphate Transport 593 Chlorophyll a (corrected) 599 Fecal Coliform Bacteria 607 Escherichia Coliform Bacteria 615 Total Gas Saturation 623 Nitrogen Gas Saturation 626 TSI (Chlorophyll) 629 TSI (Phosphorus) 631 TSI (Secchi) 633 Water Quality Index 635 x LIST OF FIGURES Page Fig. 1. Des Moines River watershed by 8-digit hydrological unit code (HUC) (from IDNR 2000 Unified Watershed Assessment). 8 Fig. 2. Location map for sampling points on the Des Moines River, the Raccoon River, and the Saylorville and Red Rock reservoirs. 12 Fig. 3. Precipitation and air temperature at the city of Des Moines, compared with normal, for the 2009 water year (from the National Weather Service). 104 Fig. 4. Iowa nitrogen fertilizer use on corn and corn acres planted, 1964–2005. 148 Fig. 5. Control chart for ion balances performed during this contract period. 191 xi LIST OF TABLES Page 1. Information on Saylorville and Red Rock dams and reservoirs from regulation manuals, Corps of Engineers. 2 2. Description of sampling stations. 10 3. History of the database—contract periods. 15 4. History of the database—sampling frequency. 17 5. History of the database—sampling station locations. 18 6. History of the database—sampling station activity. 20 7. History of the database—parameters. 21 8. History of the database—additional studies. 27 9. Structure of the five individual Paradox tables in the DMRWQM data set. 30 10. Duplicate sample, quality-assurance-control chart information, 2009 contract period. 37 11. Analysis of results from duplicate samples collected January 20, 2009, through December 1, 2009. 38 12. Spike-recovery, quality-control chart information, 2009 contract period. 39 13. Methods of analysis of water quality parameters. 40 14. Expected and extreme concentrations, significance, and notes for selected parameters. 43 15. Extreme values over the entire period of record for selected parameters, from Paradox data set. 48 16. Maximum and minimum values observed for each parameter for the period January 20, 2009, through December 1, 2009. 54 17. State of Iowa criteria for Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in class A waters. 58 18. Iowa’s 2008 impaired waters in DMRWQN project areas where TMDL are required. 59 19. Iowa’s 2008 impaired waters adjacent to DMRWQN project areas where TMDL are required. 66 20. Applicable state standards, EPA water quality criteria, FDA action levels, and EPA screening values. 69 21. Chronic criterion for ammonia in Iowa streams, early life stages present. 74 xii Page 22. Chronic criterion for ammonia in Iowa streams, early life stages absent. 75 23. Temperature and pH-dependent values of the revised EPA (chronic criteria) for ammonia where fish early-life stages are present. 76 24. Temperature and pH-dependent values of the revised EPA (chronic criteria) for ammonia where fish early-life stages are absent. 77 25. Violations of state water quality standards and/or EPA water quality criteria.