Stream Water Quality Assessment of Long Point Gully, Graywood Gully, and Sand Point Gully: Conesus Lake Tributaries Spring 2012
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Keyword
BrockportConesus Lake
Long Point Gully
Sand Point Gully
Graywood Gully
Stream Water Index
Watershed Management
Date Published
2012-06-01
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In 2011, Cottonwood Gully and North McMillan Creek were monitored to determine the status of these two watersheds of Conesus Lake using the newly developed Stream Water Index. In 2012, the goal was to implement the assessment tool in three additional watersheds: Long Point Gully, Sand Point Gully and Graywood Gully. The implementation of this tool allows the county to evaluate the status of Conesus Lake watersheds over time; that is, are they improving, getting worse, or not changing. An evaluation using a tool of this type should provide further direction to the Conesus Lake Watershed Management Plan.Collections
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Conesus Lake TributariesMakarewicz, Joseph C.; Lewis, Theodore W.; The College at Brockport (2010-11-01)After several years of a general decrease in “concentrations” of various nutrients from managed watersheds, substantial increases in the concentrations of nutrients and soil particles were observed in streams during the summer of 2009 (Makarewicz and Lewis 2009). At Graywood Gully, for example, concentrations of soil (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and nitrate increased in the stream water. At Cottonwood Gully, after a 5-year decrease, nitrate concentration (NO3+NO2) increased to levels not observed since 2003. Similar increases were observed in the Southwest, Sand Point, North Gully, Sutton Point and Long Point subwatersheds. Several factors may have contributed to this observed increase in the concentration of dissolved and particulate material; some are natural (variation in rainfall amount and intensity); others are affected by human actions (changes in land use or management practices). Although the increases observed in all the monitored streams may be related to new or changing farming practices, it could not be ruled out that the significant rainfalls in the spring and early summer of 2009 are not the cause. A limitation of the approach taken in 2008 and 2009 was that discharge was not measured as it was in the USDA study. Concentration of analytes is a function of discharge from streams; that is, as discharge increases, concentrations increase as more material is washed from the land and more material is dissolved. The observed increases could simply be due to the higher than usual rainfalls in May and especially June. For example, the daily rate of precipitation in June was twice the rate for any other previous year since 2002. May precipitation was the highest since 2003. Also, a visual inspection of this watersheds in summer of 2009 ruled out any major changes in land use. The increase in nutrient loss from all of the USDA watersheds during the summer of 2009 suggests that the approach taken of using concentration data only to evaluate temporal trends may misinterpreted. The three objectives of this summer’s work were: 1) To reevaluate the stream concentration approach to assessment of stream water by converting the data in the amount of an analyte lost from a subwatershed and to apply a statistical approach that account for discharge; 2) To monitor and nutrient and sediment input from selected watersheds; and, 3) To develop rating curves of discharge and evaluate nutrient loss from the Inlet and South McMillan Creek.
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Stressed Stream Analysis of Deep Run and Gage Gully in the Canandaigua Lake WatershedMakarewicz, Joseph C.; Lewis, Theodore W.; The College at Brockport (2001-02-01)Deep Run and Gage Gully subwatersheds are located at Canandaigua Lake’s northeast corner. Both subwatersheds are relatively small in size but a three-year monitoring program has identified them as contributing disproportionately high loads of nutrients and suspended solids (soils) to Canandaigua Lake. Within the entire Canandaigua Lake watershed, Deep Run lost the most phosphorus and nitrate per unit area of watershed to Canandaigua Lake (January 1997 to January 2000), while Gage Gully ranked third. Also, the Deep Run and Gage Gully subwatersheds ranked 3rd and 5th for total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) loss and 2nd and 3rd for total suspended solids loss per unit area, respectively in the Canandaigua Lake watershed. Because these two subwatersheds were contributing more nutrients and suspended solids than most subwatersheds of Canandaigua Lake, they have the potential to adversely affect the lake. The policy of maintaining the current high water quality of Canandaigua Lake suggested that the sources of pollution in Gage Gully and Deep Run be identified. With this report, we provide evidence suggesting the location and the intensity of pollution sources in the Deep Run and Gage Gully watersheds.
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