To assure attainment and maintenance of desired water quality levels in our rivers and streams, systematic monitoring must be performed. A preliminary phase of the design of water quality surveillance systems is the specification of sampling frequencies and station locations throughout the basin; that is, the development of an adequate space/time sampling plan. The purpose of this paper is to present some quantitative methods which have been developed to identify candidate sets of sampling frequencies and station locations, and to establish priorities for implementing the different frequencies and locations. These methods are useful in the cost/effectiveness trade‐off analyses in surveillance system design, and are based on the surveillance system objective of pollution abatement in which it is desired to detect violations in state‐federal water quality standards. A spatial priority measure is developed which is dependent both on the water quality profile in the stream and on the information obtained from monitoring stations located in other reaches. Also, a temporal sampling priority rating is presented which is a measure of the effectiveness of the surveillance system with respect to its ability to detect the violations in the standards. To illustrate the quantitative methods, the procedures are applied to the Wabash River Basin.
A simple, spreadsheet-based, time series response temperature model (RTM) was developed as part of a thermal mixing zone study performed at FirstEnergy Corp's Toledo Edison Bay Shore Station, located on a peninsula between the Maumee River and Maumee Bay in the western basin of Lake Erie, near Toledo, Ohio. The RTM was calibrated to a short intake temperature record (83 days spanning the summer of 2002) and the resulting model was then applied to the 48-year record of meteorological observations for the local National Weather Service station. The calibrated time series model suggests that natural water temperatures in Maumee Bay occasionally exceed water quality standards (WQS), even in the absence of anthropogenic heat sources. The RTM has potential value in the development and evaluation of temperature TMDLs where long-term water temperature data are not available.
The paper examines the proposed water temperature TMDL developed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the Pequannock River watershed, and the implications for the five reservoirs in the watershed that serve as the primary source of drinking water for the City of Newark, New Jersey and surrounding communities. It discusses the modeling techniques used to analyze the water temperatures and shows how limitations of those models lead to unintended and unnecessary consequences for water supply.In recent years, availability of sufficient water supplies in northern New Jersey has become an issue of concern not only for the water purveyors in the region, but also for the governmental agencies charged with overseeing those purveyors. Those concerns arise out of a series of relatively short-duration, but intense, droughts in the late 1990s and first few years of the current century. They are enhanced by a state development policy that focuses new growth in the existing urban and suburban areas of the state, which are found primarily in the northern part of the state. The paper summarizes these issues.However, despite the urban and suburban character of much of northern New Jersey, that region also hosts some of the best recreational freshwater fisheries in the state. Among them, the Pequannock River watershed has the greatest stretch of native trout propagation and maintenance waters in New Jersey. Trout require specific environmental conditions, including appropriate water temperatures. The paper addresses the extent and significance of the recreational fishery.The purpose of the proposed TMDL is to address exceedences of water temperature criteria intended to protect trout propagation and maintenance in various reaches of the watershed. The TMDL asserts that the main cause of the exceedences is the Newark reservoir system and it looks primarily to those reservoirs to manage water temperatures in the river. It uses several different models of water temperature in an attempt to understand how temperatures vary in the watershed and to support proposed changes in the operation of the Newark reservoirs to control water temperatures. The paper provides information on the basis for the water temperature criteria and the modeling.The proposed TMDL fails to address the question of how the proposed changes might affect the availability of water in northern New Jersey, particularly in Newark and its surrounding communities. In addition, close examination of the models used in the TMDL discloses flawed 717 logic that results in excessive reductions in available water. The paper provides details of the modeling performed in the TMDL, identifies the limitations and shows how those limitations lead to unnecessary reductions in available water for Newark. The paper shows how correct use of the TMDL models leads to very different conclusions regarding the causes of water temperature exceedences and how to manage them.In addition, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recently renewed Newark's water...
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