Cumberland Piedmont Network Water Quality Report; Ninety Six National Historic Site

Meiman, Joe

In early Fiscal-Year 2003, a water quality monitoring effort began in the Cumberland Piedmont Network (CUPN). For all intents and purposes, park managers and program directors can think of this work as a water quality inventory, as for many parks in the CUPN, little, if anything, was known regarding water quality. This two-year period also served as a proving-ground for water quality monitoring protocols and logistics. The report that follows is a park-specific document that describes the monitoring sites, parameters tested, results in graphic form, a brief interpretation of the results, and recommendations of parameters to be measured for the long-term. Sampling sites were chosen following site visits by the Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA) hydrogeologist Joe Meiman, and with consultation with park staff. Some sites were chosen to coincide with past inventories and monitoring efforts. In most cases sites were chosen at the downstream end of a watershed to serve as an integrator of the basin, and should yield characteristics and contributions from the entire watershed. The NPS Water Resources Division (WRD) requires each Network water quality program to monitor four core field parameters – water temperature, pH, specific conductance, and dissolved oxygen. Any additional parameters of park interest will be considered through the CUPN Vital Signs selection process. As little was known about water quality in most CUPN parks – exceptions being MACA, Little River Canyon National Preserve (LIRI) and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (CUGA) – a wide net of water quality parameters was cast during the first two years. Furthermore, as much was known about the water quality of these three parks, they were placed near the end of the park rotation allowing full inventories of parks with little data. In addition to the four core parameters, acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) and fecal coliform tests were performed in the field. Samples were taken and analyzed for a variety of ions and constituents at the MACA Water Quality Laboratory and the WATERS Laboratory (a joint venture between MACA and Western Kentucky University WKU). The MACA laboratory moved to the WKU campus in July 2004. The CUPN Science and Technical Committee (STC) recently reviewed field and laboratory quality and has made their recommendations to the CUPN Board of Directors. Data quality was reviewed based upon the Relative Percent Difference (RPD) between a field sample and it’s duplicate. In general the STC found the RPD values of the core four parameters to be of acceptable quality (less than 10% duplicate pairs lying outside a +/- 10% RPD tolerance level), although the fecal coliform and ANC tests need attention. Specifically, ANC results were of poor quality below 10 mg/l as CaCO3 and fecal coliform results were generally poor throughout its entire range. The STC has been tasked with developing new protocols for ANC and fecal coliform. In addition, the STC reviewed RPD values from laboratory analysis. Overall, eleven of the seventeen lab parameters had greater than 10% of duplicate pairs falling outside a +/- 20% RPD tolerance level. Although data generated from the lab are of questionable quality for certain paramters, they are still of use in a basic inventory of water quality for the park. It should be noted that RPD is a composite error that includes all possible error sources from sampling, transportation, preservation, and analysis. These data also represent both approved and non-standard methods and RPD values tend to be generally higher (poorer quality) for non-standard methods. Although the data that follow of questionable quality, they are still of use in a basic inventory of water quality for the park.

Cumberland Piedmont Network Water Quality Report; Ninety Six National Historic Site

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