A dramatic recovery of Lake Spokane water quality following wastewater phosphorus reduction

Welch, Eugene B.; Brattebo, S. K.; Gibbons, Harry L.; Plotnikoff, R. W.

doi:10.1080/10402381.2015.1040566

Cited by 9 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Dramatic decreases in areal hypolimnetic oxygen deficits have been observed in several lakes due to reductions of phosphorus loading (e.g., Lake Spokane3). However, there has been a recurrence of eutrophication problems and hypoxia in the central basin of Lake Erie since the mid-1990s after the extent of hypoxia was reduced in response to load reductions initiated in 19724.…”

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confidence: 99%

Will hypolimnetic waters become anoxic in all deep tropical lakes?

Fukushima

Matsushita

Subehi

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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To elucidate trends of hypolimnetic oxygen concentrations, vertical distributions of dissolved oxygen were measured in eight deep tropical bodies of water (one natural lake with two basins, five natural lakes, and one reservoir) in Indonesia. A comparison of those concentrations with previously reported data revealed that shoaling of hypolimnetic oxygen-deficient (around a few decimeters to a few meter per year) water had occurred in all of the lakes. Calculated areal hypolimnetic oxygen depletion rates were 0.046–5.9 g m−2 y−1. The oligomictic or meromictic characteristics of the bodies of water suppressed circulation and mixing in the hypolimnions and thus resulted in continuous shoaling of the uppermost oxygen-deficient layers. In some lakes, millions of fish sometimes died suddenly, probably owing to upward movement of oxygen-deficient water to near the surface during periods of strong winds. In the future, the rate of shoaling will be accelerated by human impacts in the basins and by climate warming, the influence of which has already been manifested by rising water temperatures in these lakes. Appropriate monitoring and discussions of future restoration challenges are urgently needed to prevent the hypolimnions of the lakes from becoming completely anoxic.

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confidence: 99%

Will hypolimnetic waters become anoxic in all deep tropical lakes?

Fukushima

Matsushita

Subehi

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…The negative trend between the observed summer DO MIN and Lake Spokane HRT for recent years (2010–2015) was stong ( r 2 = 0.84), with the minimum hypolimnetic DO concentration ranging from 5.1 to 7.8 mg/L (AVISTA, ; Welch et al, ). The model's DO MIN concentration response to HRT showed a similar trend.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, TP IN refers to the phosphorus concentration of the Spokane River where it enters Lake Spokane, upstream of the confluence of the Spokane River and the Little Spokane River. The modeled TP IN concentration was calculated where it enters Lake Spokane (Nine Mile Dam segment of WA_Br11 in Figure ); the modeled epilimnetic TP reservoir (TP R ) and chlorophyll a (Chl a ) concentrations were calculated for the epilimnion of the whole reservoir (Figure S1; see the supporting information; i.e., depths above 10 m), and the minimum volume‐weighted hypolimnetic DO concentration (DO MIN ) was calculated for depths below 15 m to be consistent with the observational record (AVISTA, ; Welch et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To address this issue, we conducted a series of climate and hydrologic sensitivity analyses using a version of the water quality model CE‐QUAL‐W2 (Cole & Wells, ) which has been parameterized for the Spokane River and Lake Spokane (a reservoir on the Spokane River also known as Long Lake) system during a low flow scenario. Our analysis builds on a long‐term hydrologic record for the Spokane River and a long‐term observational record for water quality in Lake Spokane (Brett et al, ; Welch et al, ). Previous studies have assessed whether the Lake Spokane Water Quality Model (Berger et al, ) is able to mechanistically represent the sensitivity of the reservoir's hypolimnetic DO concentrations to summer input total phosphorus (TP IN ) concentrations (Brett et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Well Does the Mechanistic Water Quality Model CE‐QUAL‐W2 Represent Biogeochemical Responses to Climatic and Hydrologic Forcing?

Zhang

Brett

Brattebo

et al. 2018

Water Resources Research

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Mechanistic water quality models are applied globally for water quality management in rivers and lakes. However, it is unclear how well these models represent the response of lakes to changes in climate and hydrologic conditions. To address this question, we conducted a series of climate and hydrologic sensitivity analyses using a parameterized water quality model, CE‐QUAL‐W2, for the Spokane River and Lake Spokane system. Two experimental tests with climate and flow forcing showed that the model predictions were rather insensitive to climatic‐driven hydrologic changes and a wide range of hydrologic conditions (1st to 99th percentile flows) for two different wastewater treatment plant discharge scenarios. The model realistically represented some aspects of Lake Spokane's observed responses to climatic and hydrologic variability, for example, the water residence time and some water quality trends. However, the model overestimated the reservoir total phosphorus (TPR) concentration by ~37% and the chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration by ~31% and underestimated the minimum volume‐weighted hypolimnetic dissolved oxygen (DOMIN) concentration by ~26% for a wide range of flows compared to the observed data. In contrast to the model's water quality insensitivity, the modeled temperature was more sensitive to flow than was actually observed in Lake Spokane. This study provides guidance for improving the response of one of the most important mechanistic water quality models to climatic and hydrologic forcing and should help modelers and decision‐makers to develop a rigorous assessment of climate and flow sensitivity to improve the margin of safety when setting total maximum daily load targets.

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“…Welch et al 2015), so that a nutrient 375 budget can be established to better understand the potential longevity of an application (e.g. Catherine 376 et al 2010).…”

Section: System Characterisation and Function 366mentioning

confidence: 99%