2008- 2012 Water Quality Conditions on the Williamson River Delta, Oregon: Five Years Post-Restoration Natanya Hayden and Heather Hendrixson The Nature Conservancy Klamath Basin Field Office 226 Pine Street Klamath Falls OR 97601 2008-2012 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 STUDY AREA ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 RESTORATION BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................... 7 HYDROLOGY .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 VEGETATION AND SOILS ............................................................................................................................................ 8 METHODS ................................................................................................................................................................... 9 STUDY DESIGN AND SAMPLING LOCATIONS .............................................................................................................. 9 GRAB SAMPLING ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 LABORATORY ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................................... 12 CONTINUOUS MONITORING ..................................................................................................................................... 13 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................ 16 GRAB SAMPLING ...................................................................................................................................................... 16 Phosphorus ......................................................................................................................................................... 16 Nitrogen .............................................................................................................................................................. 17 Carbon ................................................................................................................................................................ 19 Chlorophyll-a ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 CONTINUOUS MONITORING ..................................................................................................................................... 34 Seasonal Trends .................................................................................................................................................. 34 High Stress Threshold Conditions for Endangered Suckers ............................................................................... 37 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 44 DISSEMINATION OF DATA .................................................................................................................................. 44 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................................................... 45 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................................... 45 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................................ 49 Appendix A. Quality assurance results for nutreint samples collected in 2012. ................................................. 49 Appendix B. Detection and reporting limits for grab sample constituents, standard method number, and laboratory conducting the analysis. .................................................................................................................... 51 Appendix C. Quality assurance criteria for continuous monitoring data. Level A criteria represent the highest quality data as defined in TNC’s Quality Assurance Project Plan. Level B criteria represent data outside Level A criteria, but deemed acceptable for statistical analysis. Level C criteria represent data deemed unacceptable and omitted prior to analysis. ............................................................................................................................. 51 Appendix D. Quality assurance results for continuous monitoring in 2012. Data meeting Level A quality assurance criteria are not shown. ....................................................................................................................... 52 ii FIGURES FIGURE 1. LOCATION OF WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OREGON IN RELATION TO OTHER WETLANDS SURROUNDING UPPER KLAMATH AND AGENCY LAKES ................................................................................................................. 6 FIGURE 2. MAP OF THE WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OREGON SHOWING WETLAND HABITAT TYPES AND WATER SAMPLING SITES 2008-2012. ................................................................................................................................ 10 FIGURE 3. UPPER KLAMATH LAKE DAILY WATER LEVELS FROM APRIL-DECEMBER 2012 COMPARED TO DAILY MEDIAN OVER THE LAST 14 YEARS. DATA COLLECTED AT RATTLESNAKE POINT, OR BY USGS ...................................... 14 FIGURE 4. DAILY MEAN DISCHARGE LEVELS COMPARED TO DAILY MEDIAN OVER THE LAST 93 YEARS FOR WILLIAMSON RIVER. DATA COLLECTED BY USGS AT SITE 11502500 ON WILLIAMSON RIVER BELOW SPRAGUE RIVER NEAR CHILOQUIN, OR .............................................................................................................................. 15 FIGURE 5A,B. SEASONAL TRENDS IN GRAB SAMPLE CONSTITUENTS, WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR, 2012. SHOWN ARE MEANS (± STANDARD ERROR) BY LOCATION/HABITAT AND SAMPLING EVENT. ....................................... 22-23 FIGURE 6A-H. YEAR COMPARISONS OF GRAB SAMPLING CONSTITUENTS FROM 2007-2012 BY HABITAT TYPE, WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR. .................................................................................................................. 24-31 FIGURE 7A,B. PHOSPHORUS AND DISSOLVED INORGANIC NITROGEN AVERAGES BY YEAR ALONG WITH CHLOROPHYLL- A CONCENTRATIONS FROM 2008–2012 BY HABITAT TYPE, WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR.. ....................... 32-33 FIGURE 8A,B. SEASONAL TRENDS IN CONTINUOUS MONITORING VARIABLES AT LAKE, WETLAND, AND RIVER SITES, WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR. SHOWN AS DAILY MEDIAN LOCATION/HABITAT AND SAMPLING EVENT. ... 39-40 FIGURE 9. LOCATION, TIMING, AND DURATION OF WATER QUALITY CONDITIONS POTENTIALLY HARMFUL TO LOST RIVER AND SHORTNOSE SUCKERS (LOFTUS 2001), WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR 2012. HATCHED AREAS INDICATE DISCONTINUATION OF MONITORING.. ................................................................................................... 41 FIGURE 10. COMPARISON OF THE PERCENT OF TOTAL HOURS BETWEEN APRIL AND NOVEMBER WHERE CONDITIONS EXCEEDED HIGH STRESS THRESHOLD LEVELS FOR SUCKERS. DATA IS REPRESENTATIVE OF DIFFERENT HABITAT TYPES FOR FIVE POST-RESTORATION YEARS AT THE WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR ......................................... 42 FIGURE 11. LINEAR REGRESSION SHOWING CORRELATION BETWEEN PROPORTION OF ANNUAL TIME WHEN DO<4.0 MG -1 L , PH>9.7, AND TEMPERATURE>28°C WERE EXCEEDED PLOTTED AGAINST TIME IN POST-RESTORATION MONITORING. DATA IS REPRESENTATIVE OF DIFFERENT HABITAT TYPES AT THE WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR. 2 (NOTE: R VALUES <0.7 ARE NOT SHOWN.).......................................................................................................... 43 TABLES TABLE 1. WATER QUALITY DATA COLLECTED AT EACH WATER SAMPLING SITE IN THE WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA PROJECT AREA IN 2012. ‘SONDE’ DENOTES WATER TEMPERATURE, DISSOLVED OXYGEN CONCENTRATION, PH, AND SPECIFIC CONDUCTIVITY. ‘X’ DENOTES SAMPLE COLLECTED AND ‘-’ DENOTES SAMPLE NOT COLLECTED.. 11 TABLE 2. MEDIAN, MINIMUM, AND MAXIMUM CONCENTRATIONS OF GRAB SAMPLING CONSTITUENTS BY LOCATION DURING THE 2012 SAMPLING YEAR, WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR. FOR PREVIOUS YEARS (2007-2011) SEE WONG ET AL. (2010), WONG AND HENDRIXSON (2011), AND HAYDEN AND HENDRIXSON (2012). ..................... 21 TABLE 3. MEDIAN, MINIMUM, AND MAXIMUM VALUES IN CONTINUOUS MONITORING VARIABLES AT CONTINUOUS MONITORING SITES IN 2008 THROUGH 2012, WILLIAMSON RIVER DELTA, OR. ................................................... 36 iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Nature Conservancy has monitored water quality on the Williamson River Delta Preserve (the Delta) for five years following restoration: in Tulana starting fall 2007 when the first major breaches flooded approximately 3,500 acres and starting in Goose Bay during spring 2009 after another 2,000 acres were flooded;