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Computer Model Improves Real-Time Management of Water Quality

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Computer Model Improves Real-Time Management of Water Quality The San Joaquin River sometimes contains high levels of selenium, boron and salt from drainage water. Reservoir releases can be timed to dilute these concentrations. Computer model improves real-time management of water quality Nigel W.T. Quinn P Leslie F. Grober o Jo-Anne Kipps P Carl W. Chen o Earle Cummings Members of the San Joaquin The San Joaquin River provides essen- The major water-quality problems River Management Program’s tial drainage for agricultural land and on the San Joaquin River are caused by Water Quality Subcommittee have managed wetlands in the San Joaquin high loadings of selenium, boron and developed a water-quality fore- Valley. The river has an average an- salt, much of which is contained in ag- casting model to help improve the nual flow of approximately 1.8 million ricultural subsurface drainage from timing, coordination and manage- acre-feet, measured at Vernalis. Dur- the west side of the San Joaquin Val- ment of agricultural drainage and ing the period 1985 to 1994, an average ley. The Mud and Salt sloughs are reservoir releases into the San of 70% of the annual flow in the San tributaries of the San Joaquin River Joaquin River. The goal of this Joaquin River was derived from the and contribute approximately 85% of major east-side tributaries (Stanislaus, the selenium load, 65% of the boron effort is to improve water quality Tuolumne, Merced and Upper San load and 45% of the salt load carried in the San Joaquin River and to Joaquin rivers), which receive flow by the river. Seasonal drainage from meet federal and state water- from New Melones Reservoir, New 90,000 acres of wetlands in the Grass- quality objectives for salt, boron Don Pedro Reservoir, Lake McClure land Water District and in state and and selenium. A graphical user and Millerton Reservoir. The remain- federal refuges contributes approxi- interface has been developed and der of the flow during this period mately 20% of the boron load and 30% features have been added to consisted of surface drainage (14%), of the salt load discharged from the make this computer software use- subsurface drainage (I %) and contri- Mud and Salt sloughs to the San ful and accessible to a wide range butions from Salt Slough (9%)and Joaquin River. The average annual salt of decision makers. Mud Slough (2%). load carried by the San Joaquin River 14 CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE, VOLUME 51, NUMBER 5 is approximately 920,000 tons, of load that the river can accept which the east-side tributaries contrib- without exceeding EC objec- ute 16%,Salt Slough 33% and Mud tives at Vernalis. Positive as- Slough 11%.The remainder of the salt similative capacity indicates load consists of groundwater (21%) that additional drainage dis- and surface drainage (16%)(fig. 1). charges can be made to the river without violating water- Assimilative capacity quality objectives. Negative as- There is a large year-to-year and similative capacity indicates a seasonal variation in water quality in need for additional dilution. the San Joaquin River (fig. 2). Down- Past analyses using mass-balance stream users are particularly sensitive models of the river, such as the State Fig. 1. Sources of total dissolved solids to elevated salinity during the spring Water Resources Control Board’s San (TDS) contributed to the San Joaquin months of March and April when Joaquin River Input-Output model River for water years 1985-1994. preirrigation and crop germination oc- (SJRIO), suggest that considerable op- cur. March and April are also the portunity exists for improved coordi- months when many seasonal wetlands nation of drainage discharges and res- are drained for reseeding to provide ervoir releases to more efficiently use overwintering habitat for migrating river assimilative capacity for salt, bo- wildfowl. Spring pulse flows for salmon ron and selenium while complying migration also occur during this time, with water-quality objectives. Comple- providing potential dilution flows. mentary studies by the US. Bureau of Electrical conductivity (EC) is di- Reclamation - using a model that rectly correlated with the concentra- combined irrigation, drainage and tion of dissolved salts. In the 1985-to- crop-production functions - sug- 1994 period, the electrical conductivity gested that successful long-term op- at Vernalis exceeded the State Water eration of such a system might be Resources Control Board (SWRCB) possible without impairing crop water-quality objective of 700 micro- yields and forcing irrigated land out Siemens per centimeter (pS/cm) 61% of production. Fig. 2. Variation in annual TDS loading by of the time during the irrigation sea- Recent actions initiated by local wa- water year, 1985-1 994. son (April l-Aug. 31). The non- ter districts to improve compliance irrigation season (Sept. 1-March 31) with water-quality objectives include currently made up of representatives EC objective at Vernalis of 1,000 pS/ increased drainage recycling; use of from the California Department of cm was exceeded 15% of the time. short-term, on-farm surface and sub- Water Resources (DRW), Lawrence These objectives were set as part of a surface storage; and the adoption of Berkeley National Laboratory and negotiated settlement between the water conservation and drainage re- California Regional Water Quality U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) duction technologies to increase con- Control Board. In 1994 the SJRMP- and the South Delta Water Agency. trol of drainage discharges and con- WQS was awarded a U.S. Bureau of Although the U.S. Bureau of Recla- taminant loads. In addition, real-time, Reclamation Challenge Grant to dem- mation tries to meet these water-qual- telemetered data-acquisition systems onstrate that improved management ity objectives by making releases from have been installed on the major tribu- and coordination of tributary releases New Melones Reservoir, water-quality taries to the San Joaquin River, at com- and agricultural drainage contaminant forecasting capability has been inad- pliance points on the river as well as at loads from west-side sources could equate to prevent frequent violations. drainage outlets from the agricultural significantly reduce the frequency of Water is sometimes wasted when re- water districts. violations of water-quality objectives leases exceed the amount required for for salinity, selenium and boron on the dilution. Precisely timing releases is San Joaquin River Management main stem of the San Joaquin River. difficult because of the fluctuating EC The California Legislature estab- The SJRMP-WQSidentified the at Vernalis and the uncertain travel lished the San Joaquin River Manage- need to develop a decision-support time between the reservoir and the ment Program (SJRMP)in 1990 to system. This system would provide main stem of the San Joaquin River. identify some of the pressing water- current flow and water-quality data Improved forecasting of river assimi- management and water-quality prob- and forecasts of river assimilative ca- lative capacity for salt load would lems in the San Joaquin River. A Water pacity for selenium, boron and salin- help to remedy this problem. Quality Subcommittee (SJRMP-WQS) ity to decision makers. The system Assimilative capacity for salt, as was formed to implement solutions to would interrogate existing monitoring used here, is defined as additional salt these problems. The SJRMP-WQSis stations that continuously measure CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1997 15 San Joaquin River at Vernalis Bridge (EC, flow, temp) Grasslands Bypass opposite Pond 7, Kesterson Reservoir (EC, flow, temp) Orestimba Creek (EC, flow) Secondary (not yet installed) San Joaquin River at Newman Bridge (flow) San Joaquin River at Lander Av- enue Bridge (EC, flow, temp) Patterson Irrigation District diver- sion from San Joaquin River (flow) West Stanislaus Irrigation District diversion from San Joaquin River (flow) The first 10 stations on the list are located at primary sites that are essen- tial for water-quality forecasting (fig. 3). The last four stations are at secondary sites that will help improve the reli- ability of flow and water-quality fore- casts once they are installed. The sensors deployed at each site collect stage, EC and temperature data. At each station, discharge is cal- culated from stage readings with the application of a rating curve, which specifies the stage-discharge relation- ship and applies any curve shifts to take account of changes in river hy- flow and water-quality parameters, trations. The U.S. Bureau of Reclama- draulics or bed configuration. using telemetry equipment to allow tion Challenge Grant required that the Dataloggers and cellular telephones rapid access to current data and using project demonstrate the utility of the are used at each station to record data computer models to make reliable final product. at 15-minute intervals and to transmit forecasts of future flow and water- the recorded data to computers at the quality conditions. These forecasts Real-time monitoring USBR, DWR and the U.S. Geological would be useful for timing and coordi- The SJRMP-WQSidentified 14 sites Survey (USGS). nating west-side flows and contami- for continuous monitoring of flow, EC Real-time management principles nant loads from agricultural fields, and temperature along the San wetlands and wildlife refuges with Joaquin River and its tributaries. These Using the hydrologic year 1993 as east-side reservoir releases for salmon monitoring sites, with the type of data an example, the San Joaquin River as- migration, recreation, power and wa- collected at each site, are listed below: similative capacity for salts was plot- ter quality. The SJRMP-WQS hired ted as an area graph (fig. 4). The river Systech Engineering Inc. to design a Primary (existing) assimilative capacity depicted by the Microsoft Windows-based user inter- Mud Slough in Kesterson Wildlife graph is shown as positive from Octo- face for the forecasting model.
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