Fresh Water Studies Commons^™

Groundwater Quality Assessment From Domestic Water Wells In The Fayetteville Shale Gas Play Area In Central Arkansas, Anna Marie Nottmeier

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study establishes a spatially distributed domestic water well groundwater quality data set, throughout the Fayetteville Shale Gas Play (FSGP) in central Arkansas. The data set facilitates characterization of the geology and groundwater quality across the study area, benefits residents who may have concerns about the potential impacts on their well water quality, and provides a groundwater quality basis to which complaints can be compared and resolved. The assessment included: research of the study area, site reconnaissance, water sampling and collection, interviews with owners of the property, analytical analysis, Quality Assurance and Quality Control, and groundwater data interpretation.

The study …

Nutrient Dynamics In Stormwater Runoff From Green Roofs With Varying Substrate, John Michael Fohner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One major concern with urban development is the increasing amount of stormwater runoff from large expanses of impervious surfaces. These impervious surfaces reduce the ability of stormwater to infiltrate into the soil and eventually groundwater, which leads to greater amounts of surface runoff. Green technology serves as a viable solution to many of the environmental problems presented by modern development. Fifteen mock, extensive green roofs were built in the fall of 2008 at the Watershed Research and Education Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The goals of this project were to (1) measure the amount of stormwater runoff from varying treatments and …

Nutrient Criteria Development Mini-Workshops For Usepa Region Vi States, Brian E. Haggard, J. Thad Scott

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has been encouraging states to accerlate their efforts in developing numeric nutrient criteria to promulgate within respective water quality standards and regulations. Based on USEPA recommendations, many states are pursuing nutrient criteria development by assessing frequency distributions and stressor‐response relationships in historical databases, various special studies and the literature. The mini‐workshops described here were targeted toward state agency personnel and stakeholder groups with an interest in understanding statistical techniques that could be used to aide, guide and support numeric nutrient criteria. An initial workshop was conducted at the USEPA Regional Technical Assistance Group meeting …

Sestonic Chlorophyll-A And Nutrient Relationships Across The Red River Basin, Usa, Brian E. Haggard, J. Thad Scott, Scott D. Longing, John T. Metrailer

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Red River is a trans‐boundary, multi‐jurisdictional basin, where water‐quality standards often change at the state lines. The state agencies with USEPA Region VI focused resources to organize water‐quality data from within this basin and have it statistically analyzed to evaluate the relationships between nutrients and sestonic chlorophyll‐a (chl‐a). There were 152 sites within the Red River Basin that had nutrient and sestonic chl‐a data, and these sites were narrowed down to 132 when a minimum number of observations was required. Sestonic chl‐a levels increased with increasing nutrient concentrations; these significant regressions were used to predict nutrient concentrations at 10 …

Water Quality Trends Across Select 319 Monitoring Sites In Northwest Arkansas, Bryan W. Bailey, Brian E. Haggard, Leslie B. Massey

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Northwest Arkansas contains two 319 priority watersheds that the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission has identified as being impacted by point source and nonpoint source pollution (i.e., phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment). This project specifically focused on determining water quality trends at select sites within the Illinois River (HUC# 11110103) and Beaver Reservoir (HUC# 11010001) priority watersheds, including Ballard Creek, Osage Creek, Illinois River, White River, West Fork White River and the Kings River where sufficient constituent data were available. Water quality trends were analyzed using flow‐adjusted constituent concentrations of phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment, sulfate and chloride, and parametric and non‐parametric statistical techniques …

Characterization Of Temporal And Spatial Variation In Subwatersheds Of The Strawberry River, Ar, Prior To Implementation Of Agricultural Best Management Practices, T. R. Brueggen-Boman, J. L. Bouldin

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) assessments indicate alterations in physical and/or chemical factors making them valuable tools when attempting to assess agricultural best management practices (BMPs). The purpose of this study was to obtain pre-BMP land cover and macroinvertebrate community data in order to characterize temporal and spatial variation in three catchments: Little Strawberry (LS), Greasy Creek (GC), and Sandy Creek (SC) of the Strawberry River Watershed, located in north central Arkansas, in order to establish baseline conditions. BMIs were collected for the three subwatersheds in 1995, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2009. Taxa richness, Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) and Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and …

Establishing Baseline Nutrient And Sediment Input In The Lower Cache River Watershed, Ar, A. M. Gilmer, C. A. Rosado-Berrios, J. L. Bouldin

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Contaminants in waterways continue to be a problem especially in watersheds dominated by land use changes such as agriculture. Clearing the land for agricultural use is needed to support the population; however, agricultural contaminants are cited as contributing the greatest input of suspended solids and nutrients to waterways. Quantifying various contaminants in surface water is useful in determining their origin, thus aiding in their mitigation. This study, focused on the Cache River Watershed, reports pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity, turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), NO3 - , NO2 - , and PO4 3- in the lower sub watersheds. It was …

Phosphorus Release From Bottom Sediments At Lake Wister, Oklahoma, Summer 2010, B.E. Haggard, J.T. Scott

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

A previous reservoir model of Lake Wister, Oklahoma suggested that internal P sources were dominant, and that a watershed management plan need not be developed to address external sources. The objectives of this study were to collect intact sediment cores from three sites at Lake Wister and measure sediment O₂ demand (SOD) and soluble reactive P (SRP) release to the overlying water during lab incubations under quiescent conditions. The measured SOD rates were between 9.9 and 22.6 mg m⁻² hr⁻¹ on average across the three sites, where the shallow headwaters site had the least SOD. The SRP release rates were …

Assessment And Characterization Of Physical Habitat, Water Quality, And Biotic Assemblages Of The Tyronza River, Arkansas, N. J. Wentz, N. D. Henderson, A. D. Christian

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Few studies within the last few decades have addressed water quality and biotic assemblages within Arkansas’s large channel-altered deltaic rivers. The Tyronza River is located in northeast Arkansas and its watershed has a heavy agricultural presence that drastically affects habitat quality. Meanwhile, the Tyronza River hosts one of the more recent documented range extensions of the federally endangered fat pocketbook mussel [Potamilus capax (Green, 1832)]. The purpose of this study was to assess physical habitat, water quality, and biotic assemblages of the Tyronza River using the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s (ADEQ) regional biometrics. Water samples were collected at 9 …

Clean Energy Water Disinfection For Small, Remote Rural Communities, Ryan M. Lee

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Access to drinking water is essential to all life, yet in many developing and remote communities, it is often contaminated with disease causing pathogens. This project was created in response to the annual WERC Environmental Design Competition. This year’s specific challenge was to develop human powered, stand-alone, effective, easily implemented, and economical water disinfection systems. Many technologies were evaluated; however, bleach and ultraviolet (UV) light treatments were determined to be most applicable to remote and impoverished communities. The Razorback Microcide WERC Crew designed and demonstrated two systems independently featuring bleach and UV disinfection technology. Both systems include a high capacity, …

Factors That Contribute To Turbidity On The West Fork Of The White River In Arkansas, Chris Cotton, Brian Haggard

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The West Fork of the White River (WFWR) exceeds the water quality standard for turbidity (10 NTU) set by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and, since 1998, the river has been on Arkansas’s 303 (d) list of impaired water bodies unsuitable for aquatic life because of turbidity exceedances. To understand the factors that could be related to turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), total inorganic suspended solids (TISS), total volatile suspended solids (TVSS), sestonic chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations, and turbidity were measured on three sample dates from nine sites on the WFWR. As the site location changed in the downstream direction, …

Water Quality Monitoring And Constituent Load Estimation In The Kings River Near Berryville, Arkansas, 2009, L.B. Massey, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Arkansas Water Resources Center monitored water quality at the Kings River near Berryville, Arkansas, during base flow conditions and storm events from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. Water samples were collected manually with an alpha or Kemmerer style sampler and analyzed for nitrate‐nitrogen (NO₃‐N), sulfate (SO₄), chloride (Cl), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total phosphorus (TP), dissolved ammonia (NH₃‐N), total N (TN), total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity. Physico‐chemical parameters were measured in field including pH, conductivity, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration. The selected site was at an established discharge monitoring station maintained by the US Geological …

Water Quality Monitoring And Constituent Load Estimation In The Upper White River Basin, 2009, L.B. Massey, B.E. Haggard, R.S. Avery, R.A. Morgan

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Arkansas Water Resources Center monitored water quality at seven sites in the Upper White River Basin during base flow conditions and storm events from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. Water samples were collected manually with an alpha or Kemmerer style sampler and analyzed for nitrate‐nitrogen (NO₃‐N), sulfate (SO₄), chloride (Cl‐), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total phosphorus (TP), dissolved ammonia (NH₃‐N), total N (TN), total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity. Physico‐chemical parameters were measured in field including pH, conductivity, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration. The selected sites were all at established discharge monitoring stations maintained by the …

Water Quality Monitoring And Constituent Load Estimation In The Upper Illinois River Watershed, 2009, L.B. Massey, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) monitored water quality at eight sites in the Upper Illinois River Watershed (UIRW) during base flow conditions and storm events from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. Water samples were collected manually with an alpha or Kemmerer style sampler and analyzed for nitrate-nitrogen (NO₃-N), sulfate (SO₄), chloride (Cl), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total phosphorus (TP), dissolved ammonia (NH₃-N), total N (TN), total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity. Physico-chemical parameters were measured in the field including pH, conductivity, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration. The selected sites were at established discharge monitoring stations maintained …

Water Quality Outreach And Education Strategies For Northwest Arkansas And Regional Watersheds, Katie Teague, John Pennington

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Stakeholders impact water quality and have a responsibility to protect, maintain, and improve water quality throughout northwest Arkansas and watersheds everywhere. But unless the roles of responsibility and stewardship among all stakeholders is communicated clearly and repetitively, there will be little progress made towards maintaining and improving water quality, while lawsuits, blame, and inaction will persist. Thus, the overall goal of water quality education and outreach is to improve the ability of stakeholders to take care of their watershed by teaching them what actions are or are not beneficial for water quality protection, maintenance, or improvements. Specific outreach and education …

Water Quality And Watershed Conditions In The Upper Illinois River Watershed, Brian Haggard, Andrew Sharpley, Leslie Massey

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Illinois River and its tributaries have many uses that have been designated by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality including fisheries, aquatic life, primary contact waters, secondary contact waters, drinking water supply, and agricultural and industrial water supply, and water quality affects whether these uses can be supported. Since water quality can be quite complex, many types of measurements can be used as water quality indicators; some common water quality measurements include pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, and conductivity. More complicated measurements include determining nutrients, sediment and bacteria in the water, as well as assessing the aquatic life—aquatic insects, fish, …

Handbook Of Best Management Practices For The Upper Illinois River Watershed And Other Regional Watersheds, B.E. Haggard, Andrew Sharpley, Leslie Massey

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Management actions are strategies carried out by stakeholders that are designed to implement water quality protection and restoration activities with a watershed. This publication presents a range of beneficial management actions from simple to complex that address the pollutant potential that is common across the watershed landscape of northwest Arkansas. Some management actions can be undertaken by any watershed stakeholder at any time, while others need to be carefully planned or lobbied to local and state government. The following chapters address potential management actions that can be taken by individuals or groups at households, businesses, institutions, municipalities, industrial facilities, farms, …

Final Report To The Illinois River Watershed Partnership: Recommended Watershed Based Strategy For The Upper Illinois River Watershed, Northwest Arkansas, B.E. Haggard, Andrew Sharpley, Leslie Massey, Katie Teague

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

This publication serves as the final report to the Illinois River Watershed Partnership (IRWP) regarding the project entitled “Development of the Watershed Management Plan for the Upper Illinois River”. This document was intended to provide this stakeholder based organization guidance in the development of a watershed management plan for the Illinois River drainage area (i.e., the Upper Illinois River Watershed, UIRW) in Arkansas. This document represents the final report from the Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) and affiliated project investigators, and the IRWP may alter this document before the final submission of its watershed management plan to the Arkansas Natural …

A Vision For The Upper Illinois River Watershed, Kent Thornton

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Upper Illinois River Watershed is a special place where the threads of private, public and non‐profit partnerships are woven into the regional fabric of economic vitality; environmental stability, and social responsibility. Through its cultural heritage, the legacy of land stewardship, integrated with respect for personal property rights, continues. Natural resources are restored and sustained within a healthy mosaic of fields, forests, farms, woodlands, wetland prairies, pastures, cities, and naturally flowing streams. It is an incubator for green energy, entrepreneurial, educational and environmental initiatives.

Regulatory Drivers For The Upper Illinois River And Other Regional Watersheds, Ray Weida

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Environmental regulations are put in place to protect the air, water and land from threat of pollution. Regulatory programs establish pollution limits, determine compliance, and enforce environmental laws and regulations for waterbodies within the watershed based on the designated uses for the individual waterbody. These established regulations make sure that the state’s mandatory standards for clean water and the minimum federal standards are being achieved. Environmental regulations are established on both the federal and state levels. On the federal level, Congress has authorized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other governmental agencies to create and enforce regulations. The EPA delegates …

Multimedia And Ultrafiltration For Reverse Osmosis Pretreatment Aboard Naval Vessels, Angela C. Mehner

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

The US Navy is interested in improving the pretreatment for shipboard Reverse Osmosis potable water systems. To investigate this problem, the Navy prepared a Task for the 2010 WERC (http://www.werc.net) competition. The research described in this paper was performed to compete in this WERC Task and ultimately received a 1st place award. Several technologies were considered as options for improving the current pretreatment process. Multi-media filtration followed by ultrafiltration was chosen as the most economical solution. This paper presents the final design for a full-scale shipboard system that incorporates multimedia filtration and ultrafiltration yet requires minimal space and optimal power …

Sediment Phosphorus Flux In Beaver Lake In Northwest Arkansas, Taraf Abu Hamdan, Thad Scott, Duane Wolf, Brian E. Haggard

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Internal phosphorus (P) loading may influence primary production in lakes, but the influence of sediment-derived P has not been well studied in Beaver Lake of Northwest Arkansas. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), dissolved organic P (DOP), and total dissolved P (TDP) sediment-water fluxes were determined using intact sediment cores collected from deepwater environments in the riverine, transition zone, and lacustrine zones of Beaver Lake. The SRP, DOP, and TDP fluxes were also estimated from cores collected from shallow locations in the transition zone. There was a net positive SRP (0.001 – 0.005 µg P cm-2 h-1), DOP (0.005 – 0.01 µg …

Assessment Of Total Organic Carbon Concentrations In Two Streams Of Northwest Arkansas: Town Branch And Brush Creek, Abigail N. Washispack, Jason A. Mcginnis, Brian E. Haggard

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Within a stream, changes in flow rate and local environment can affect the total organic content (TOC) concentrations in the stream water and TOC delivery downstream to water supply reservoirs. Disinfection by-products (DBPs) result from various chemical reactions between chlorine, bromine, and organic carbon in raw water during the drinking water treatment process; DBPs are potential carcinogens and are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this project, we measured the TOC concentrations in two streams in the Beaver Lake Watershed: Town Branch and Brush Creek. We then compared TOC concentrations between the two streams and to that observed …

Tributary Contribution To The Spring River, Ar As Determined By Water Quality Analyses, T. R. Brueggen, C. B. Dowling, Jennifer L. Bouldin

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Tributaries often play an important role in the chemical properties, productivity and species diversity in a river channel. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of tributaries on the water quality of the Spring River, AR. The Spring River has an approximate length of 92 km and has been divided into four zones according to the water source(s) that feed that segment of river. In this study approximately 30 km of the upstream river segment were sampled, which included nine tributaries contributing to the main river channel and incorporated the upper three previously defined zones. Samples were …

White River Forum Ii: Second Annual Meeting Of The White River Forum, John Havel, Kenneth Steele

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

This second annual meeting of the White River Forum is proof of widespread interest in the water quality of the Upper White River watershed. The participation of numerous elected officials, state and federal agencies, universities, businesses, and local citizens indicates that interest in understanding policy issues crosses political boundaries and occupations.

Illinois River Volunteer Monitoring, L.B. Massey, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Understanding how water quality conditions change along a land use gradient and over time is important for sustainable watershed management. Therefore, a volunteer monitoring program was created to measure water chemistry at 37 established sites within the Upper Illinois River Watershed and to evaluate changes in water chemistry over the past 15 years. The Illinois River Watershed Partnership (IRWP), a non‐profit organization subcontracted with the Arkansas Water Resources Center at the University of Arkansas, to manage the volunteer monitoring project, train volunteers to collect samples following EPA approved methods, and to analyze the collected samples. The AWRC trained 27 volunteers …

Frequency Distributions Of Median Nutrient And Chlorophyll Concentrations Across The Red River Basin, 1996-2006, S.D. Longing, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Acquisition and compilation of water quality data for a ten year time period (1996 – 2006) from 589 stream and river stations was conducted to support nutrient criteria development for the multi–state Red River Basin shared by Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, USA. Twenty–three water quality parameters were collected from five data sources (USGS, ADEQ, LDEQ, OCC, OWRB, and TCEQ) and an additional 13 parameters were acquired from at least one source. Data for the primary biological parameter of interest, chlorophyll a, was sparse and available from only two sources. Following compilation of data, medians were calculated for …

Heterosternuta Sulphuria (Coloptera: Dytiscidae) Occurence In The Sulphur Springs Headwater System And In Buffalo National River Tributaries (Arkansas, Usa): Current Distribution, Habitat Conditions, And Biomonitoring Framework, S.D. Longing, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

Heterosternuta sulphuria is an endemic aquatic species of concern in Arkansas, with a priority score of 80 out of 100 and a conservation rank of S1and G1. A need of the Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan (AWAP) was to obtain baseline information on distribution and population status of H. sulphuria. Here, we report new H. sulphuria records for 39 sites across 10 counties in the Ozark Highlands and Boston Mountain ecoregions and a determined habitat type of shallow margins and small bedrock pools of perennial streams and spring seeps. Few habitat patches were observed per site because detection was typically rapid …

Water Quality Sampling, Analysis And Annual Load Determinations For Nutrients And Solids On The Ballard Creek, 2008, L.B. Massey, L.W. Cash, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Arkansas Water Resources Center monitored water quality at Ballard Creek at the Washington County Road 76 Bridge in northwest Arkansas during base flow and storm events from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009. Water samples were collected manually or with an auto-sampler and analyzed for nitrate-nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, soluble reactive phosphorus, sulfate, chloride and total suspended solids. Instantaneous stage and discharge were recorded at the site; total annual discharge was 55,800,000 m³ , with 27% attributed to base flow and 73% attributed to storm flow. Loads were estimated using the mid-interval integration approach using continuous …

Water Quality Sampling, Analysis And Annual Load Determinations For The Illinois River At Arkansas Highway 59 Bridge, 2008, L.B. Massey, L.W. Cash, B.E. Haggard

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

The Arkansas Water Resources Center monitored water quality at the Illinois River at the Arkansas Highway 59 Bridge, just upstream from the Arkansas-Oklahoma state border during base flow and storm events from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009. Water samples were collected manually or with an auto-sampler and analyzed for nitrate-nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, soluble reactive phosphorus, sulfate, chloride and total suspended solids. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded instantaneous stage and discharge at the site, total annual discharge was 1,010,000,000 m³ , with 37% attributed to base flow and 63% attributed to storm flow. Loads were estimated …