Segment Analysis of Sucker Brook: The Location of Sources of Pollution

Abstract

Sucker Brook is located in the northwest portion of the Canandaigua Lake watershed, Ontario County, New York (Figs. 1 and 2). The relatively large watershed encompasses 6.9 square miles and flows into Canandaigua Lake at the City of Canandaigua. The Canandaigua Lake Watershed Task Force with the assistance of the Ontario County Planning Department and the Soil and Water Conservation District has monitored Sucker Brook since 1996 in collaboration with the State University of New York at Brockport's Center for Applied Aquatic Science and Aquaculture (CAASA). Monitoring efforts have included the installation of a permanent gauging and sampling station located at Clark Street (Site 9, Figure 3) on the main branch of Sucker Brook. SUNY Brockport has provided analytical services for water quality parameters as well as consulting services on the direction of the monitoring program. Based on two years of monitoring, a priority ranking of watersheds indicated that the Sucker Brook subwatershed was one of the major sources of phosphorus, nitrate, organic nitrogen, chloride and soils to Canandaigua Lake. In fact, Sucker Brook was delivering twice the amount of salt to the lake compared to any other Canandaigua Lake watershed (1, 2). That is, Sucker Brook and the watershed it drained, is a major source of nutrient and soil pollution to Canandaigua Lake. Previous results indicate nutrient loading from Sucker Brook to Canandaigua Lake is high especially during precipitation events (3). Where are the sources of nutrients, soils and salts within the Sucker Brook subwatershed? The next step is to identify the point and non-point sources by stressed stream analysis or segment analysis. With this report, we provide evidence suggesting the location and the intensity of pollution sources in the Sucker Brook watershed.