2010 Water Quality Report Flowing Sites Executive Summary
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[Type text] 2010 Water Quality Report Flowing Sites Executive Summary Jen Stephenson Esther Vincent Jim Loftis 2010 [Type text] Northern Water 2010 Water Quality Report CONTENTS CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................................... I TABLE OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................. 2 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................... 4 COLORADO‐BIG THOMPSON OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 4 WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 5 REPORT OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE ........................................................................................................................................ 8 DATA ANALYSIS AND METHODS ......................................................................................................................................... 8 CONCLUSIONS AND HIGHLIGHTS ........................................................................................................................................ 9 Windy Gap Sites ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Stillwater Creek ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 Arapaho Creek ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 The North Fork of the Colorado River .................................................................................................................. 12 Adams Tunnel and Olympus Tunnel .................................................................................................................... 12 Total Organic Carbon ........................................................................................................................................... 13 East Slope Canals ................................................................................................................................................. 14 East Slope Streams ............................................................................................................................................... 15 Inflows and Outflows to the East slope Reservoirs .............................................................................................. 16 Specific Conductivity ............................................................................................................................................ 17 [Type text] 2010 Water Quality Report TABLE OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: MAP OF C-BT SYSTEM ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 FIGURE 2: NORTHERN WATER STAFF COLLECTING WATER QUALITY SAMPLES .......................................................................... 5 FIGURE 3: MAP OF MONITORING SITES IN BASELINE MONITORING PROGRAM ............................................................................. 6 TABLE 1: LIST OF SAMPLING SITES AND DESCRIPTIONS .................................................................................................................... 7 FIGURE 4: STILLWATER CREEK UPSTREAM OF GRANBY RESERVOIR ................................................................................................. 9 FIGURE 5: FARR PUMP PLANT ............................................................................................................................................................ 10 FIGURE 6: ORTHO P (MG/L) IN STILLWATER CREEK AND GRANBY PUMP CANAL ....................................................................... 11 FIGURE 7: SEASONAL VARIBILITY IN AMMONIA CONCENTRATIONS AT AC-GRU ..................................................................... 11 FIGURE 8: ADAMS TUNNEL EAST PORTAL ....................................................................................................................................... 12 FIGURE 9: TOC CONCETRATIONS OVER TIME ON THE EAST SLOPE ........................................................................................... 13 FIGURE 10: TOC AT ADAMS TUNNEL, UPPER BIG THOMPSON RIVER AND HANSEN FEEDER CANAL ..................................... 14 FIGURE 11: SAINT VRAIN SUPPLY CANAL (LEFT) ENTERING SAINT VRAIN CREEK (RIGHT) ........................................................ 14 FIGURE 12: TP AT THE EAST SLOPE STREAM SITES WITH SEASONAL BREAKDOWN .................................................................... 15 FIGURE 13: HORSETOOTH RESERVOIR INLET ................................................................................................................................... 16 FIGURE 14: CARTER LAKE .................................................................................................................................................................. 17 TABLE 2: 2007 AND 2009 REPORTED INCREASING TRENDS FOR SPECIFIC CONDUCTANCE ..................................................... 17 2 2010 Water Quality Report ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS C-BT Colorado-Big Thompson DO Dissolved Oxygen DOM Dissolved Organic Matter Harlan Harlan and Associates, Inc. MDL Method Detection Limit N Nitrogen NH3 Ammonia NO3 + NO2 Nitrate plus Nitrite NWFS Northern Water Field Services NWQL National Water Quality Laboratory (USGS) Ortho P Orthophosphate QA/QC Quality Assurance/Quality Control RL Reporting Limit RPD Relative Percent Difference SC Specific Conductance TKN Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen TN Total Nitrogen TOC Total Organic Carbon TP Total Phosphorus USBR United States Bureau of Reclamation USEPA United States Environmental Protection Agency USGS United States Geological Survey WQCD Water Quality Control Division WWTP Waste Water Treatment Plant WY Water Year 3 2010 Water Quality Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY COLORADO-BIG THOMPSON OVERVIEW Northern Water, a public agency created in 1937, provides water for agricultural, municipal, domestic and industrial uses to an eight-county service area with a population of about 830,000. Northern Water and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation operate the Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project, which collects water on the West Slope and delivers it to Northeastern Colorado through a 13-mile tunnel beneath Rocky Mountain National Park. The C-BT Project annually delivers an average of 213,000 acre feet of water to northeastern Colorado for agricultural, municipal, domestic and industrial uses. Water is provided to Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, Longmont, Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Broomfield, many smaller communities, rural and domestic water districts and local industries. Water is delivered to approximately 120 ditch, reservoir and irrigation companies serving about 640,000 irrigated acres of farm and ranch land between April and October, the primary growing season. FIGURE 1: MAP OF C-BT SYSTEM Runoff from the headwaters of the Colorado River is collected in the Three Lakes system (Granby Reservoir, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Grand Lake). Granby Reservoir also receives water from Willow Creek Reservoir and Windy Gap Reservoir in addition to the natural runoff from the Three Lakes watershed. When direct runoff to Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Reservoir is sufficient to meet East Slope water demands, the rest of the flow moves naturally from Grand Lake to Shadow Mountain Reservoir, to the Colorado River and eventually Granby Reservoir. When East Slope demands are greater than the direct runoff to Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Reservoir, Adams Tunnel deliveries are supplemented with water pumped from Granby 4 2010 Water Quality Report Reservoir. Water is pumped from Granby Reservoir to Shadow Mountain Reservoir via the Granby Pump Canal, from where it is gravity fed to Grand Lake before reaching the West Portal of the Adams Tunnel. Water then travels through the Adams Tunnel, from where it makes its way through a series of tunnels and pipelines to eventually be stored in the East Slope terminal reservoirs (Horsetooth Reservoir, Carter Lake and Boulder Reservoir). It is then distributed to the end-users either directly from the canals, the reservoirs or via deliveries to the South Platte tributaries (Cache La Poudre River, Big Thompson River, Little Thompson River, Saint Vrain Creek, Lefthand Creek and Boulder Creek) used as a conveyance system. The Windy Gap Project is located just west of the town of Granby on Colorado's West Slope. The project consists of a diversion dam on the Colorado River below the confluence with the Fraser River, a 445-acre-foot reservoir, a pump plant and a six-mile pipeline to Granby Reservoir. The project came online in 1985 to serve municipal water needs and utilizes C-BT infrastructure to move water to the East Slope. The Windy Gap Project delivers an average of 48,000 acre feet of water annually