New York City Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Water Supply Stream Management Program Upper Esopus Creek Watershed Turbidity/Suspended Sediment Monitoring Study: Biennial Status Report March 2021 Prepared in accordance with Section 4.6 of the NYSDOH 2017 Filtration Avoidance Determination Prepared by: DEP, Bureau of Water Supply Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Study Overview ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Study Area ................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Study Goals and Objectives ..................................................................................................... 7 3. Streamflow and Water Quality Monitoring ......................................................................... 11 3.1 Monitoring Network ................................................................................................................. 11 3.2 Streamflow Monitoring ............................................................................................................ 13 3.3 Suspended Sediment Monitoring ............................................................................................. 18 3.4 Turbidity Monitoring ............................................................................................................... 19 4. Suspended Sediment Source Characterization .................................................................... 28 4.1 Source Characterization Framework ...................................................................................... 28 4.2 GIS Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 30 4.3 Mapping Sediment Source Distribution ................................................................................. 34 4.4 Stream Erosion Monitoring ..................................................................................................... 41 4.5 Source Sediment Analysis ........................................................................................................ 46 4.6 Stream Morphodynamic Modeling ......................................................................................... 50 5. Sediment and Turbidity Reduction Projects ........................................................................ 51 5.1 Existing STRPs .......................................................................................................................... 51 5.2 Future Stony Clove STRPs ....................................................................................................... 54 6. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 58 7. References ................................................................................................................................ 59 1. Introduction 1.1 Background The 2017 Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD) requires the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Stream Management Program (SMP) to continue data collection and analysis for the Esopus Creek Watershed Turbidity/Suspended Sediment Study (“the Study”) initiated in 2016. The 2017 FAD further requires DEP to submit biennial reports on the status of this research every other March, along with a five-year summary report of research findings due in November 2022 and a final report due in November 2027. DEP’s first biennial status report in March 2019 covered the study period from United States Geological Survey (USGS) water years 2017 through 2018. This is the second biennial status report and covers the monitoring period through USGS water year 2020 with some reporting on hydrology and geomorphology covering the remainder of calendar year 2020. USGS water years begin on October 1 of a given year and continue through to September 30 of the following year. The water year is numbered based on the concluding year. Thus, water year 2020 ends on September 30, 2020. On December 25, 2020, a flood occurred in the Ashokan Reservoir basin that measurably impacted turbidity dynamics and also impacted the research monitoring infrastructure. The flow occurred during winter conditions, thereby limiting field investigation, and subsequent hydrological and water quality monitoring data is still under review. While this report cannot adequately cover the impact of that flood on the research given the timing of the event near the very end of the reporting period, its significance merits some brief discussion in this report. 1.2 Study Overview DEP is collaborating with USGS on this 10-year research project to potentially answer the following New York City water supply resource management questions: • What are the primary sub-basin sources and causal factors influencing turbidity delivered to the Ashokan Reservoir? • Can stream management practices reduce stream turbidity and suspended sediment delivered to the Ashokan Reservoir? The Upper Esopus Creek drainage basin (UEC basin) is the principal source of water to the Ashokan Reservoir and is the focus of this research effort. The monitoring-based research uses streamflow, turbidity and suspended sediment monitoring, source investigation methods, and stream restoration projects to inform turbidity reduction management strategies and evaluate stream turbidity reduction efficacy across a range of spatial, temporal and hydrologic scales. The Study monitoring started in water year 2017 and will continue through water year 2026 before DEP submits a final research report per the FAD in November 2027. 1 DEP funds the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program (AWSMP) to develop and implement stream management strategies and practices in the UEC basin, in large part to reduce stream-sourced turbidity which is a priority water quality parameter for DEP. In Catskill streams, turbidity is a function of the concentration of suspended sediment (SS) in streamflow. The primary means for stream turbidity reduction is through stream restoration projects, referred to in the Study as sediment turbidity reduction projects (STRPs). Esopus Creek serves as a representative model fluvial system to investigate SS and turbidity source dynamics at the basin to sub-basin scale because of its extensive glacially derived sources of clay and silt which generate turbidity disproportionately in the Ashokan Basin. Stony Clove Creek is the largest tributary to Esopus Creek and serves as an experimental sub-basin system to investigate SS and turbidity source dynamics as well as STRP efficacy at the reach to sub-basin scale. In July 2016, DEP entered into a five-year agreement with USGS to initiate this Study, although work toward this research goes back to at least 2001. USGS is responsible for: (1) monitoring and analyzing streamflow (Q), SS concentration (SSC), and turbidity; (2) evaluating STRP impacts on monitored turbidity and SS flux (SSC*Q); and (3) testing SS fingerprinting as a source sediment characterization technique in the Study area. DEP is responsible for: (1) research project coordination and FAD reporting; (2) geologic and geomorphologic investigations; and (3) funding design, construction and monitoring of STRPs in the Stony Clove sub-basin through an agreement with Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District (UCSWCD). The AWSMP further supports this Study through research grants administered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County (CCEUC). The Study design addresses three areas that will inform DEP’s long-term efforts to protect and improve source water quality: • Characterize how primary UEC sub-basins vary in terms of turbidity, SS flux (sediment transport rate) and yield (sediment transported per unit area). How do observed differences between sub-basins change under a range of flow and sediment source conditions and over time? How can characterization of this variability inform stream management strategies? • Using the Stony Clove as a model sub-basin, characterize how different stream segments (monitoring reaches) vary in terms of turbidity, SS flux and yield within the same sub- basin. What are the reach-scale conditions and processes that lead to heterogeneous yields, and how can understanding of these inform STRP siting and design? • Using the Stony Clove sub-basin SS and turbidity monitoring data, evaluate the effectiveness of existing and future STRPs on reducing turbidity, SS flux and yield from the monitoring reach to sub-basin scale across a range of flows. To what extent can SS and turbidity associated with different sediment sources, channel conditions and processes be sustainably managed within the stream system? By changing sediment connectivity source conditions (e.g., separating a channel from a hillslope SS source) can the functional connectivity (e.g., SS flux) be measurably changed? 2 Most of the water quality parameters monitored in this Study have been introduced and defined above. To ensure clarity of terminology, DEP has defined the key parameters discussed throughout this report as follows: • Streamflow (Q): the