Kansas Lake and Wetland Monitoring Program 2017 Annual Report
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KANSAS LAKE AND WETLAND MONITORING PROGRAM 2017 ANNUAL REPORT Division of Environment Bureau of Water Watershed Planning, Monitoring, and Assessment Section 1000 SW Jackson Street, Suite 420 Topeka, KS 66612 By G. Layne Knight February 20, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Lake and Wetland Monitoring Program surveyed the water quality conditions of 45 Kansas lakes and wetlands during 2017. Eight of the sampled waterbodies are large federal impoundments, eleven are State Fishing Lakes (SFLs), 22 are city and county lakes, two are federal wetland areas, and two are state wetland areas. A limited assessment was conducted on an additional four lakes and Central Park Lake in Topeka was monitored in connection with a harmful algae bloom mitigation project. Of the 49 lakes and wetlands analyzed for chlorophyll-a concentrations, ~71% exhibited trophic state conditions comparable to their previous period-of-record water quality conditions. Another 12% exhibited improved water quality conditions, compared to their previous period-of-record, as evidenced by a lowered lake trophic state. The remaining 14% (2% had no previous ranking) exhibited degraded water quality, as evidenced by elevated lake trophic state conditions. Phosphorus was identified as the primary factor limiting phytoplankton growth in 53% of the lakes surveyed during 2017, nitrogen was identified as the primary limiting factor in about 16% of the lakes and wetlands, while five lakes (12%) were identified as primarily light limited due to high inorganic turbidity. Two lakes were determined to be limited by hydrologic conditions and one lake had at least partial algal limitation due to macrophyte densities. Limiting factors were unable to be determined for the remaining six lakes. A total of 38 waterbodies had trophic state conditions sufficiently elevated to cause impairment of one or more designated uses. Of these, 29 lakes and wetlands (59% of all waterbodies) had trophic state conditions sufficient to create moderate-to-severe water quality problems in multiple designated uses. Although present, water quality criteria exceedances related to heavy metals and pesticides were relatively few in number during 2017. Twenty-five waterbodies (61% of those surveyed for pesticides) had detectable levels of at least one pesticide during 2017. Atrazine was detected in 24 of these waterbodies, once again making atrazine the most commonly documented pesticide in Kansas lakes. The highest observed atrazine concentration during lake and wetland sampling was 6.0 μg/L. Acetochlor, atrazine, and metolachlor were found in lakes during 2017. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Development of the Lake and Wetland Monitoring Program .................................................... 1 2017 Monitoring Activities ......................................................................................................... 1 Methods........................................................................................................................................... 4 Yearly Selection of Monitored Sites ........................................................................................... 4 Sampling Procedures .................................................................................................................. 4 Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................... 5 Trophic State and Algal Community .......................................................................................... 5 Lake Stratification and Water Clarity ....................................................................................... 12 Fecal Indicator Bacteria ............................................................................................................ 16 Limiting Nutrients and Physical Parameters............................................................................. 17 Pesticides in Kansas Lakes ....................................................................................................... 21 Exceedances of State Surface Water Quality Criteria .............................................................. 22 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 24 References ..................................................................................................................................... 25 Appendix A: Temperature and Dissolved Oxygen Profiles of Stratified Lakes ........................... 28 ii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. General information pertaining to lakes and wetlands surveyed during 2017 ...................2 Table 2. Current and past trophic state classification for the lakes surveyed during 2017 .................... 7 Table 3. Algal communities observed in the lakes surveyed during 2017............................................. 8 Table 4. Algal biovolumes calculated for the lakes surveyed during 2017 ........................................... 9 Table 5. Temporal trends in trophic state based on comparisons to mean historical condition .......... 10 Table 6. Macrophyte community structure in lakes surveyed for macrophytes during 2017 .............. 11 Table 7. Stratification status of the waterbodies surveyed for depth profiles during 2017 ................. 13 Table 8. Water clarity metrics for the waterbodies surveyed in 2017 ................................................. 14 Table 9. E. coli counts from waterbodies surveyed for E. coli during 2017 ........................................ 16 Table 10a. Criteria used to classify limiting factors in lakes ............................................................... 18 Table 10b. Limiting factor determinations for the lakes and wetlands surveyed during 2017 ............ 19 Table 11. Pesticide levels documented in Kansas lakes and wetlands during 2017 ............................ 21 Table 12. Lake use support determination based on lake trophic state ................................................ 23 iii INTRODUCTION Development of the Lake and Wetland Monitoring Program The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Lake and Wetland Monitoring Program was established in 1975 to fulfill the requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act (Public Law 92-500) by providing Kansas with background water quality data for water supply and recreational impoundments, determining regional and time trends for those impoundments, and identifying pollution control and/or assessment needs within individual lake watersheds. Program activities originally centered around a small sampling network comprised mostly of federal lakes, with sampling stations at numerous locations within each lake. In 1985, based on the results of statistical analyses conducted by KDHE, the number of stations per lake was reduced to a single integrator station within the main body of each impoundment. This, and the elimination of parameters with limited interpretive value, allowed expansion of the lake network to its present 177 sites scattered throughout all the major drainage basins and physiographic regions of Kansas. The network remains dynamic, with lakes occasionally being added to or dropped from active monitoring or replaced with more appropriate sites throughout the state. In an effort to incorporate a larger percentage of classified waterbodies into the regular network, the 358 lakes and wetlands on the Kansas Surface Water Register were subjected to a hierarchical ranking procedure during 2015 and 2016. As a result, 15-20 more lakes will receive an assessment each year, raising the number of monitored waterbodies from 177 to approximately 290 (KDHE, 2017a). Intermittent or very small systems will be assessed using nutrient and chlorophyll-a data only. These activities are scheduled to begin during the 2018 field season. 2017 Monitoring Activities Staff of the KDHE Lake and Wetland Monitoring Program conducted water quality monitoring activities on 45 Kansas lakes and wetlands during 2017. Eight of these waterbodies are large federal impoundments last sampled in 2014, eleven are State Fishing Lakes, 22 are city/county lakes, two are federal wetland areas, and two are state wetland areas. Twenty-two of the 38 lakes (58%) presently serve as either primary or back-up municipal or industrial water supplies, have an existing municipal water supply allocation, or have public water supply wells along their shores. General information on the lakes surveyed during 2017 is compiled in Table 1. At each of the network waterbodies, water samples also were collected for an isotope project being conducted at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Other sampling activities during 2017 included the collection and analysis of chlorophyll-a samples from four additional water supply lakes (Bone Creek Lake, Cedar Creek Reservoir, Parsons Lake, and Yates Center Reservoir). Central Park Pond in Topeka was sampled monthly from April-November for chlorophyll-a, algal taxonomy, and algal toxins in order to establish a baseline dataset that will be compared to data collected in 2018 after harmful algal bloom remediation efforts (in the form of ultra- sonic technology) are in place. Figure 1 depicts the distribution of classified lakes and wetlands in Kansas and details