New and Alamo River Wetlands Master Plan Revised Final Report May 21, 2007
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NEW AND ALAMO RIVER WETLANDS MASTER PLAN REVISED FINAL REPORT MAY 21, 2007 Prepared for: Wildlife Conservation Board Salton Sea Authority Sacramento, CA La Quinta, CA Prepared by: Tetra Tech, Inc. Wetlands Management Services Lafayette, CA Chelsea, MI New and Alamo River Wetlands Master Plan Revised Final Report May 21, 2007 Prepared for: Wildlife Conservation Board Salton Sea Authority 1807 13th Street, Suite 103 78-401 Highway 111, Suite T Sacramento, CA 95814 La Quinta, CA 92253 Prepared by: Tetra Tech, Inc. Wetlands Management Services 3746 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Suite 300 6995 Westbourne Dr. Lafayette, CA 94549 Chelsea, MI 48118 New and Alamo River Wetland Master Plan, Final Report Table of Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................... ES-1 1. Introduction.......................................................................................................1-1 1.1 Summary of Prior Work............................................................................................................1-1 1.2 Organization of Master Plan Report .......................................................................................1-6 2. Historical Water Quality Data in the Alamo and New River Basins..........2-1 2.1 New and Alamo River Flow......................................................................................................2-1 2.2 Water Quality – New River......................................................................................................2-5 2.3 Water Quality – Alamo River.................................................................................................2-14 2.4 Agricultural Drain Flow............................................................................................................2-22 2.5 New River – Agricultural Drain Water Quality.................................................................2-24 2.6 Alamo River – Agricultural Drain Water Quality..............................................................2-28 2.7 NPDES Flow and Water Quality Data .................................................................................2-30 2.8 New River – NPDES Facility Water Quality.......................................................................2-33 2.9 Alamo River – NPDES Facility Water Quality....................................................................2-34 2.10 Other Flow and Water Quality Data....................................................................................2-35 2.11 Summary ......................................................................................................................................2-36 3. Synoptic Survey Data for 2005........................................................................3-1 3.1 Water Quality ..............................................................................................................................3-1 3.2 Results Summary..........................................................................................................................3-4 3.3 Overall Surface Water Quality...............................................................................................3-20 3.4 Data Quality Assessment.........................................................................................................3-31 4. Biological Sampling ..........................................................................................4-1 4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................4-1 4.2 2005 Field Collections................................................................................................................4-1 4.3 2006 Field Collections................................................................................................................4-4 4.4 2005 Analytical Results...............................................................................................................4-7 4.5 2006 Analytical Data.................................................................................................................4-19 4.6 Graphical Data Summary for Selected Chemicals..............................................................4-34 4.7 Comparative Bird Egg Data.....................................................................................................4-47 5. Biological Inventory of Potential Wetland Sites ...........................................5-1 5.1 Results............................................................................................................................................5-3 5.2 Discussion .....................................................................................................................................5-9 6. Overview of Composite Watershed/Wetland Model...................................6-1 6.1 Objectives......................................................................................................................................6-1 6.2 Conceptual Model .......................................................................................................................6-2 6.3 Watershed Flow Model..............................................................................................................6-2 6.4 Watershed Quality Model.........................................................................................................6-3 Tetra Tech, Inc. i New and Alamo River Wetland Master Plan, Final Report 6.5 Wetland Flow Model ..................................................................................................................6-4 6.6 Wetland Quality Model..............................................................................................................6-4 6.7 Model Mathematical Formulation ............................................................................................6-5 6.8 Model Implementation for the New and Alamo River Watersheds..............................6-12 6.9 Model Calibration......................................................................................................................6-19 6.10 Sensitivity to Wetland Pollutant Removal Rate and Hydrologic Parameters ..............6-36 6.11 Model Development: Summary..............................................................................................6-39 7. Base Case Distribution of Flows and Loads...................................................7-1 7.1 Overview of the Alamo and New River Watersheds.........................................................7-1 7.2 New River Watershed ...............................................................................................................7-1 7.3 Alamo River Watershed ............................................................................................................7-2 7.4 Characterization of Primary Sources......................................................................................7-2 7.5 Identification of Primary Drain Sources ...............................................................................7-13 7.6 Magnitude and Location of Drain Sources...........................................................................7-31 7.7 Distribution of Flows and Loads: Conclusions ...................................................................7-37 8. Scenarios with Wetlands .................................................................................8-1 8.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................8-1 8.2 Scenario 1: Thirty-Five (35) Top-Ranked Wetland Sites....................................................8-2 8.3 Scenario 2: Thirty-Five (35) Top-Ranked Wetland Sites with Reduced Wetland Areas ..............................................................................................................................................8-8 8.4 Scenario 3: Thirty-Five (35) Top-Ranked Wetland Sites with Reduced Wetland Areas and Mixed Reactor Flow Wetlands...........................................................................8-10 8.5 Summary ......................................................................................................................................8-12 9. Wetland Network Design: Optimal Site Selection.......................................9-1 9.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................9-1 9.2 Optimization Analyses of Number and Locations of Wetlands .......................................9-1 9.3 Scenario 4: Top Five (5) Wetlands..........................................................................................9-3 9.4 Scenario 5: Top Ten (10) Wetlands........................................................................................9-8 9.5 Scenario 6: Top Performance Wetlands ................................................................................9-8 9.6 Scenario 7: Maximum Load Reduction ...................................................................................9-9 9.7 Scenario 8: Additional Wetlands in Northern Reaches of New and Alamo Rivers...9-14 9.8 Scenario 9: Impact of Cross-Border Flows in the New River.........................................9-16 9.9 Scenario 10: Impact of IID Conservation.............................................................................9-17