Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network Data Report of Baseline Conditions for 2010/2011 A SUMMARY Susquehanna River Basin Commission Publication No. 280 Modified April 5, 2012 Abstract Approximately 85 percent of the collected at five-minute intervals and Susquehanna River Basin is underlain uploaded to SRBC’s public web site by shales containing natural gas, (mdw.srbc.net/remotewaterquality/) including the Marcellus shale at predetermined intervals via cell or formation. Extracting gas from these satellite transmission. formations became economically feasible through hydraulic fracturing Since initiating the RWQMN project – the process of using large volumes in January 2010, SRBC has been of water to fracture shales and release collecting baseline water quality trapped gas. conditions in smaller watersheds within the headwaters’ region of With the onset of hydraulic fracturing the basin, where data have typically activities in the Susquehanna River been scarce to non-existent. This will Basin, the Susquehanna River Basin help characterize the basin’s water Commission (SRBC) initiated resources and evaluate any impact additional water quality monitoring on water quality from natural gas activities to generate data that can development over the next 5-10 years. help determine if natural gas drilling activities are or are not changing water The focus of this report is on the quality conditions. Most notably, data collected at the initial 37 remote Purpose of this Report Is: SRBC established the Remote water quality stations installed from Water Quality Monitoring Network January to December 2010. These are To release data characterizing baseline (RWQMN) for real-time, continuous the stations for which SRBC had at water quality conditions to determine the monitoring. least six months of data collected and existing conditions within select watersheds assessed in preparation for this first – not to draw conclusions on water quality At the time of this report, SRBC’s RWQMN summary data report. impacts – for the watersheds containing the RWQMN consists of 51 monitoring first 37 monitoring stations installed by SRBC. stations installed in select watersheds After analyzing attributes of each within the region of the basin station, SRBC decided to group As with any science-based project where experiencing unconventional shale them by ecoregions for data analysis. baseline conditions need to be set first, SRBC gas development. The stations are SRBC concentrated its analysis on is continuing to collect and analyze data located in a variety of areas including the continuous data for pH, specific at all 51 stations before it can determine if state forests, state gamelands, private conductance, and turbidity, as well any observed water quality conditions are property, and municipal property. as on water samples analyzed in a departures from baseline conditions. lab for other chemical parameters. Each station is equipped with a data Stations that had field chemistry To inform the public about the future sonde, data platform, and a solar atypical of their ecoregion were direction of data collection and analysis panel or power source to continuously identified for future analysis. SRBC monitor the following parameters: pH, anticipates continuing data collection efforts, and where more detailed studies will temperature, conductance, dissolved at all stations and periodically issuing be conducted at targeted stations based on oxygen, and turbidity. The data are subsequent data reports. the baseline data results and other water quality observations. This publication is a summary of the full Contact: Dawn Hintz report, which is available on SRBC’s web Environmental Scientist II/Database Analyst site at mdw.srbc.net/remotewaterquality/. Phone: (717) 238-0423 Email: [email protected] 1 Introduction The network currently stands at 51 • Non-impaired or minimally With the majority of the Susquehanna stations (Appendix A), which includes impaired waterbodies; River Basin (85 percent) underlain the stations funded by East Resources, • Presence of wastewater with natural gas shales and hydraulic Inc. as well as those funded by discharges; fracturing increasing since 2008, the Pennsylvania Department of • Presence of drinking water SRBC initiated measures to manage Conservation and Natural Resources intakes; water resources and encourage (PADCNR), New York State • Land use; sustainable use and development, and Energy Research and Development • Channel morphology that would established a real-time, continuous Authority, and Headwaters Resource allow the data sonde to be in water quality monitoring network & Conservation Development Council moving water during all flow called the Remote Water Quality Sinnemahoning Stakeholders Committee. regimes; Monitoring Network (RWQMN). • Availability of sunlight to power Specific criteria were identified for all the battery; and, This report is focused on the initial 37 stations selected within the shale gas • Local interest. stations (Figure 1) installed and for region. The following criteria were Stations were located on both private which there has been enough time to considered when locating stations: and public lands having met all or the collect and assess a sufficient amount • Watershed size between 30-60 majority of the identified criteria. of data. Funding for the intial stations square miles; was provided by SRBC’s general • Gas pad density and other gas The initial 18 months of sampling in operating fund and a contribution related infrastructure (on the these watersheds have allowed SRBC from East Resources, Inc. ground or proposed); to build a substantial baseline dataset Figure 1. Map of the Initial 37 RWQMN Stations 2 in smaller streams and headwater areas previously lacking these types of data. The period of data collection for the 37 sites ranges from six to 18 months (Appendix B). Baseline data on these streams will assist SRBC and other agencies to detect if activities in the watershed are having an adverse effect on the water quality. Equipment and Parameters Each RWQMN station is comprised of the same equipment: data sonde, data platform, and solar panel or other power source. The data sonde is a multi-parameter SRBC staff installs data sonde at a station along Loyalsock Creek, Sullivan County, Pa. water quality sonde (see photo lower right) with an optical dissolved oxygen probe, an optical turbidity probe, a pH probe, and a conductance and will have elevated conductance graph, and determine basic statistics temperature probe. The data sonde measurements. Dissolved oxygen from the raw data. General project also includes a non-vented relative is the amount of oxygen available information and maps are also found depth sensor. The entire unit is placed to aquatic life in a stream; aquatic on the user-friendly web site at mdw. in protective housing in free-flowing life needs are generally above 4-5 srbc.net/remotewaterquality/. water at each site. milligrams/liter (mg/l) range. Oxygen levels are impacted by temperature The data platform stores the water and organic material. Turbidity is the quality observations and transmits measure of water clarity and typically the data by either cellular or satellite increases with higher flows or other signal, depending on the type of instream disturbance, as sediment and communications needed at the station other particulate matter mobilize. location. The data platform is powered by a rechargeable 12V battery The data sonde collects the water B connected to a solar panel or other quality parameters as frequently A power source. as every five minutes with data D transmission times varying based on C The continuously-monitored water the type of communication. Data from quality parameters at each station stations with cellular data transmission include temperature, pH, conductance, are uploaded every two hours, while Each station is equipped with a data dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. data from stations utilizing satellite sonde (above) that measures dissolved data communication are uploaded oxygen, turbidity, pH, conductance pH is the measure of the stream water every four hours. Data transmitted via and temperature. The data sonde also acidity or alkalinity. In Pennsylvania, satellite telemetry are an average of the includes a non-vented relative depth the water quality standard range for pH data collected at five-minute intervals sensor. is 6.0 to 9.0 and the New York water over the four-hour time period. A – Dissolved Oxygen quality standard range is 6.5 to 8.5. B – pH Conductance is the ability of water to The data are uploaded to a public web C – Turbidity conduct electricity; streams with high site maintained by SRBC. The web D – Conductance/Temperature levels of dissolved solids and chlorides site allows users to view, download, 3 Results North Central Appalachian The stations located in this ecoregion The 37 RWQMN stations are Ecoregion are designated as cold water fishes distributed over three Level Ten stations fall within the North (CWF), high-quality cold water fishes III ecoregions: North Central Central Appalachian ecoregion (HQ-CWF), or exceptional value Appalachian, Northern Appalachian (Figure 2). This ecoregion is a waters (EV), with the exception of the Plateau and Uplands, and Central forested, sedimentary upland that has Tioga River, which is designated as Appalachian Ridges and Valleys high hills and low mountains. It is warm water fishes (WWF). Bowman (Table 1). divided into an unglaciated western Creek, West Branch Pine Creek, Long region