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

Although this project is listed as completed it is a continuing project supported under other sources of funding. This project supported several components of the water quality monitoring and assessment. In 2008 the SRWQL finished the analysis component of ORLAP certification and will begin the process of submitting an application for certification.

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 Tribes lab will alleviate.