Water quality monitoring at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site: Northeast Temperate Network 2014 summary report
Gawley WG and Dieffenbach FW. 2016. Water quality monitoring at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site: Northeast Temperate Network 2014 summary report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NETN/NRDS—2016/1027. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report on the water quality of Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site (SAIR) 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 two stream sites at SAIR to be sampled twice annually in May and August. 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. Sampling parameters included in-situ water quality measures (pH, specific conductance, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, turbidity), weather, stream flow (discharge), and stream stage. In May and August, water samples were obtained and analyzed for acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), color, nutrients, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chloride, and sulfate. All 2014 water quality parameters monitored in Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site were within state standards, where applicable, and total phosphorus and nitrogen measures were above the EPA Ecoregion 14 nutrient criteria. Phosphorus concentrations were high, but within the range of past measurements. ANC measurements showed that all sites were very well-buffered. NETN plans to establish a stage datum point (or preferably an automated water level logger) at the Turning Basin in 2015. This will enable a better understanding of the relationship between Turning Basin water levels and the discharge measurements from the USGS gage. A continuous data logger was installed in the Turning Basin in August of 2014 to collect conductivity data.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Gawley, William; Dieffenbach, Fred
- Date of Issue
- 2016-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NETN , NRSS , SAIR
- Keywords
- 2014, NETN, report, SAIR, Saugus Iron Works, water quality, x#annualReports, x#wqProgram
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Water | Water Quality | Water Chemistry