Water quality monitoring at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park: Northeast Temperate Network 2014 summary report

Gawley, William; Dieffenbach, Fred

This report on the water quality of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (MABI) includes data gathered by the Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) in the 2014 monitoring season and displays these results in graphic form, accompanied by a brief interpretation. The data address the NETN objective to detect change in the status of physical, chemical, or biological attributes of park freshwater bodies. The NETN Freshwater Monitoring Protocol calls for one park pond and one stream to be sampled monthly from May through October at MABI. Staff measured physical and in-situ water chemistry parameters each month and periodically collected water samples for analysis at the University of Maine’s Sawyer Environmental Chemistry Research Laboratory. Monthly sampling parameters included in-situ water quality measures (pH, specific conductance, temperature, and dissolved oxygen), transparency and light attenuation (pond site only), stream turbidity, weather, stream flow (discharge), and stream and pond stage. In May (stream only), June (pond only) and August (both sites), water samples were obtained and analyzed for acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), color, nutrients, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chloride, sulfate, and chlorophyll a (pond only). Most water quality parameters for the Pogue and Pogue Brook were within state standards, and were generally within the range of EPA regional nutrient criteria, where applicable. The values were usually within the ranges of the historic NETN monitoring data. An exception is pH at the Pogue, where surface pH ranged above and below the state upper pH standard throughout the season. The Pogue and Pogue Brook are well buffered, as evidenced by the high pH and ANC measurements, and are unlikely to be adversely affected by atmospheric acid deposition. The entire historical data range (including 2014 samples) of nutrient levels for the Pogue is above the EPA criteria for both phosphorus and nitrogen; however 2014 values were at the low end of the historical range. The 2014 phosphorus and nitrogen values for Pogue Brook were all at the low end of the historical data range, and were below the EPA stream criteria.

Water quality monitoring at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park: Northeast Temperate Network 2014 summary report

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