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Ecological Indicators of Water Quality in the Spokane River, Idaho and Washington, 1998 and 1999

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Ecological Indicators of Water Quality in the Spokane River, Idaho and Washington, 1998 and 1999 NATIONAL WATER-QUALITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAM Prepared in cooperation with WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY Ecological Indicators of Water Quality in the Spokane River, Idaho and Washington, 1998 and 1999 Background The USGS, in cooperation with WDOE, sampled six sites along the Spokane River during the summers of Urban and mining activities have affected the Spo- 1998 and 1999 to evaluate urban and mining impacts on kane River that flows out of Coeur d’Alene Lake from aquatic organisms (fig. 1). Idaho into Washington. This This study of the Spokane large river (more than 150 Overview River was conducted as part feet wide) flows through the of the NROK NAWQA Pro- city of Spokane to the 7 A water-quality investigation of the Spokane gram to evaluate the status Mile bridge site and is River was completed during summer low-flow con- and trends in surface- and impounded by three dams ditions in 1998 and 1999 as part of the USGS ground-water quality in NAWQA Program, in cooperation with the WDOE. parts of western Montana, used to generate hydroelec- (Abbreviations used in this report are defined on tric power. From Spokane, northern Idaho, and eastern the last page.) Washington (Tornes, 1997). the river continues west and Samples for analyses of water chemistry; bed joins the Columbia River 63 sediment; aquatic communities (fish, macroinverte- Ecological indicators miles downstream. Histori- brates, and algae); contaminants in tissue (fish and were evaluated to determine macroinvertebrates); and associated measures of cal and current mining the effects of multiple stres- habitat were collected at six sites downstream from activities in the Coeur Coeur d’Alene Lake between river miles 63 and sors on aquatic organisms. d’Alene River Basin in 100. These data provided baseline information to The ecological data col- Idaho have contributed large evaluate the water-quality status of the Spokane lected at these sites are out- quantities of metals to River and can be used to determine the ecological lined in the sampling matrix Coeur d’Alene Lake (Gros- risk to aquatic organisms from contaminants. table (table 1). The purpose bois and others, 2001). The of this study was to: USGS has documented ele- • Identify surface-water-quality and sediment- vated concentrations of cadmium, lead, and zinc entering quality constituents of concern and determine the river from Coeur d’Alene Lake (Woods, 2000). The whether those constituents were affecting WDOE has placed the Spokane River on its 303(d) aquatic organisms. impaired water list (Clean Water Act) for high concentra- • Conduct a baseline aquatic community assess- tions of trace metals that violate Washington’s water- ment at selected Spokane River sites. quality criteria (Washington State Department of Ecol- ogy, accessed May 1, 2003, at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/ • Compare aquatic community measures and met- programs/wq/303d/1998/1998_by_wrias.html. In addi- rics with those at least-impacted sites. tion, studies done by the WDOE (1995) and USGS • Analyze contaminants in aquatic organisms and (MacCoy, 2001) have identified elevated concentrations sediment and compare the results with estab- of PCBs in fish and sediments. lished criteria. U.S. Department of the Interior September 2003 U.S. Geological Survey FS-067-03 118° 117° 116° River River BONNER STEVENS WASHINGTON 48° Franklin D Roosevelt Lake Long North Spokane Lake Spokane IDAHO Little Post KOOTENAI 63 Spokane 96 Falls Coeur Fork River d'Alene Prichard Columbia 100 90 Coeur Bunker Hill 77 85 Enaville Superfund Site LINCOLN d'Alene River Ha Lake e South len SPOKANE ngma Kellogg Coeur d'A Pinehurst Fork n Harrison Wallace Pine Creek Creek St SHOSHONE St Maries Joe Calder River St Maries BENEWAH ADAMS WHITMAN River 115° 47° LATAH 0 10 20 30 MILES Base compiled from U.S. Geological Survey State base maps 1:1,000,000 EXPLANATION 0 10 20 30 KILOMETERS Sampling site location; number, below, is mileage from mouth of river 63 Spokane River at 7 Mile bridge, Washington 77 Spokane River below Greene Street at Spokane, Washington 85 Spokane River at Sullivan Road bridge near Trentwood, Washington (Plantes Ferry) 90 Spokane River at Greenacres, Washington (near Barker bridge) 96 Spokane River above Liberty bridge at Harvard Road near Otis Orchards, Washington (State line) 100 Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho Figure 1. Locations of sampling sites, Bunker Hill Superfund site, and the Spokane River Basin, Idaho and Washington. Periphyton Samples of periphyton (algae attached to bottom substrate) were collected at all sites for analysis of CHLA (fig. 2). The concentration of CHLA in a sample indicates the level of nutrients in the river that are avail- able to promote algal growth. Concentrations of CHLA between 100 and 150 milligrams per square meter (mg/m2) have been suggested as an indicator of nuisance algal conditions (Welch and others, 1989; Watson and Gestring, 1996). The Spokane River did not appear to be water- quality limited as a result of excessive algal growth at sites sampled during this study; however, the down- stream CHLA concentration approached the nui- sance level. At the upstream sites in the Spokane River, CHLA concentrations were between 2 and 10 mg/m2, far below levels of nuisance algal growth. At Figure 2. Periphyton (algae attached to bottom substrate) were the downstream site at the 7 Mile bridge, below sew- collected from riffle areas using protocols described by Porter age-treatment facilities and other industrial inputs, and others (1993). the CHLA concentration was 94 mg/m2, which is approaching the nuisance level. 2 Table 1. Sampling matrix of ecological data collected by the USGS during 1998 and 1999 from selected sites on the Spokane River, Idaho and Washington, for a cooperative study with WDOE and for the NROK NAWQA Program. [Locations of sampling sites shown in figure 1; O, samples collected in 1998; X, samples collected in 1999; X, data analyzed by WDOE1. Data analyzed by USGS for this study can be accessed at http://idaho.usgs.gov/projects/spokane/index.html ] Site name Otis Orchards Sullivan Road Post Falls (State line) Greenacres bridge Greene Street 7 Mile bridge River mile 100 96 90 85 77 63 USGS site ID 12419000 12419500 12420500 12420800 12422000 12424500 Latitude 47°42'11" 47°40'56" 47°40'45" 47°40'40" 47°40'40" 47°44'25" Longitude 116°58'37" 117°05'05" 117°09'25" 117°11'43" 117°22'20" 117°31'10" Periphyton (chlorophyll- a and biomass) XX X XXX Macroinvertebrate community OX X X X X X Fish community OX X X X OX Habitat assessment XX Continuous (hourly) summer water temperature OX X X X Trace metals–macroinvertebrates XX X XXX Trace metals–fish tissue XX X OX Organochlorines–fish tissue XX X O Trace metals–sediment OX OX Organochlorines–sediment OX OX Trace metals and PCBs–whole rainbow trout, largescale suckers, and mountain whitefish1 XXXX 1See the WDOE home page (http://www.ecy.wa.gov/) for further details about their sampling effort on the Spokane River. Macroinvertebrate Community Macroinvertebrates were collected from riffle habitats for community assessment and analysis of metal concentrations in caddisflies (fig. 3). Even though the total abundance of macroinvertebrates collected in 1999 at the Spokane River sites was higher than at least-impacted sites (sites upstream from urban and mining impacts sampled as part of the NROK NAWQA) on the North Fork Coeur d’Alene River at Enaville and the St. Joe River near Calder (Maret and others, 2001), the number of indi- vidual taxa (indicating biological diversity) was much lower. In fact, the number of mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and caddisflies (Trichoptera), referred to as EPT taxa, was 2 to 3 times lower at Spo- Figure 3. Macroinvertebrates were sampled at all sites in the Figure 3. Macroinvertebrates were sampled at all sites in the kane River sites than at least-impacted sites (fig. 4). Spokane River using protocols described by Cuffney and Spokane River using protocols by Cuffney and others (1993). others (1993). Stoneflies that are found at most least-impacted sites in 3 35 Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho (river mile 100) Least-impacted sites upstream from hourly temperature, August 1999 mining and urban impacts 25 30 23 25 21 20 State of Idaho coldwater criteria, 22 degrees Celsius 19 15 17 10 15 AND TRICHOPTERA TAXA AND TRICHOPTERA 5 EPHEMEROPTERA, PLECOPTERA, 13 0 100 96 90 85 77 63 North Fork North Fork St. Joe Coeur d'Alene Coeur d'Alene River at 11 SITE NUMBER River, River, Calder Enaville Prichard Spokane River below Greene Street at Spokane, Washington (river mile 77) hourly temperature, August 1999 25 Figure 4. Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera taxa collected in the Spokane River, Idaho and Washington, compared with taxa collected at least-impacted sites, Idaho. (Site numbers shown in 23 figure 1; data for least-impacted sites are given in report by Maret 21 and others, 2001) State of Washington coldwater criteria, 20 degrees Celsius TEMPERATURE, IN DEGREES CELSIUS TEMPERATURE, 19 Idaho were absent from the Spokane River. On the basis 17 of regional collections by Maret and others (2001), the Spokane River should be able to support at least five taxa 15 of stoneflies. Even though measures of substrate (bot- tom material such as gravel or cobbles) size and percent 13 embeddedness (amount of fine substrate surrounding 11 larger substrate) did not indicate habitat degradation and 13579111315 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 were very low (less than 10 percent) for riffle habitats at AUGUST all sampling sites, the low numbers of EPT taxa in the Spokane River indicated impaired water quality. Figure 5. Hourly temperature measurements at Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho, and Spokane River below Greene Street at Spokane, Washington, August 1999.
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