Midwest (U.S.A.) reservoir water quality modification I. Particulate parameters

✍ Scribed by Victor I. Okereke; E. Robert Baumann; T. Al Austin; Donna Schulze Lutz

• Book ID: 104658312
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 871 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0049-6979
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00192943

✦ Synopsis

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to evaluate the impact of a flood control, low flow augmentation reservoir on seven water quality parameters: Suspended solids and total phosphate (particulate parameters); BOD, COD, and ammonia (O2-demanding parameters); and orthophosphate and nitrite plus nitrate N (soluble nutrients). Fourteen years of weekly sampling data above, in, and downstream of the reservoir both before and after the reservoir became operational were analyzed. This paper considers the effects of the reservoir on the particulate parameters. There was a dramatic decrease in both suspended solids and total phosphate concentrations in the reservoir discharges, particularly during periods of high river flows and high reservoir inflow parameter concentrations. At all sampling stations, the annual parameter loading rates (kg ha-1 yr-1) correlated linearly with annual runoff (cm yr-~). The suspended solids removal efficiency of the reservoir was dependent on annual runoff and averaged about 90%. Non-point source contributions of suspended solids were well over 99% when annual runoff exceeded 6.57 cm yr-1 and over 95% even when annual runoff was as low as 1.63 cm yr-1.