Sprague River Water Quality Assessment and Monitoring, and Water Quality Lab Development

This project continues our ongoing efforts to improve conditions in the Sprague River, which is the largest sub-basin above Upper Klamath Lake. Once an important provider of spawning and rearing habitat for anadromous salmonids, more than 100 river miles in the valley-bottoms of the Sprague River have been altered by land use in ways that have reduced the capability of this system to support salmonids. In addition, the resulting increase in nutrients flowing from this basin contributed to changing Upper Klamath Lake from a naturally eutrophic lake to a culturally hypereutrophic lake. The resulting increase in nutrient and organic material emanating from Upper Klamath Lake has contributed to water quality and fish disease problems far downstream in the Klamath River. Despite these changes, anadromous salmonids persist in the Klamath River, and sufficient habitat exists in the Upper Klamath Lake catchment to support runs today. However, there is a clear need to improve conditions in the Upper Basin.

The project proposes to supplement other funding sources to maintain the existing water quality and flow monitoring/assessment network in the Sprague River and continue development of a state-of-the-art Sprague River Water Quality Laboratory (SRWQL). Monitoring and assessment consists of measuring flow, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, conductivity, chloride, and total suspended solids at six sites on a biweekly basis (weekly during high flow events) on a continuing basis. In addition, thermographs deployed at 16 sites record water temperature hourly year-round, and Hydrolabs collect hourly water quality data from two sites every other week over the summer months.

Water quality lab development focuses on attaining EPA and ORLAP (Oregon Laboratory Accreditation Program) certification, which involves splitting each sample, sending part to a certified lab for analysis, and running nutrient (TN, NH3-N, NO2+NO3, TP, and PO4), total suspended solids, and chloride tests in our lab. Certification will depend in part on the demonstrated performance of our SRWQL, measured by comparing results of these duplicate sample analyses. Here we propose to split samples for analysis by the US National Water Quality Lab (USGS Denver, CO), because we are using the same instrumentation and methods (several of which were developed at the USGS lab) and have been working closely with USGS in developing our lab. As part of the certification process, we need to ensure that we are able to duplicate our analytical results at a facility with capabilities similar to ours. Once certified, the Tribes lab can be used by all entities in connection with enhancement activities.

The proposed project adds necessary components to efforts being conducted by the water SRWQL, which will yield several important benefits. First, it provides the means to quantify the cumulative effectiveness of management changes and restoration projects in different portions of the sub-basin. In other words, the monitoring data set provides an excellent baseline. Second, spatial and temporal patterns of nutrient loading and water quality are revealed, yielding crucial guidance to prioritizing restoration actions. Third, as we develop specific plans to reintroduce anadromous salmonids to the Upper Klamath Basin, this data set reduces key uncertainties, making our restoration strategy more likely to succeed. Fourth, a certified water quality lab present locally will dramatically reduce costs associated with many important research, monitoring, and restoration projects in the Upper Basin. At present, use of distant labs with high analytical costs and slow turnaround times has severely limited work involving nutrient analyses, a situation the SRWQL will alleviate.