Water quality monitoring at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site: Northeast Temperate Network 2014 summary report

Gawley, William; Dieffenbach, Fred

This report on the water quality of Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (SAGA) 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 a total of one park pond and two streams to be sampled monthly from May through October at SAGA. 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 penetration (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). All 2014 water quality parameters for the pond and streams monitored in Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site were within state standards, and majority of values were within the ranges of the historic NETN monitoring data from SAGA. Apparent color and turbidity were relatively high at Blow-Me-Down Brook and Pond in May, and all 2014 total phosphorus levels for these two sites were above the EPA’s non-regulatory criterion, but chlorophyll a values from the pond do not indicate any evidence of a major algal bloom. Chloride levels also continued to be high at these sites, suggesting runoff of salt from the nearby road. Light penetration profiles of Blow-Me-Down Pond showed that clarity was lowest during the month of July, similar to patterns in the previous two years of light monitoring.

Water quality monitoring at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site: Northeast Temperate Network 2014 summary report

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