Water quality monitoring for Devils Tower National Monument: 2016 data report
Ashton IW and Rockwood S. 2020. Water quality monitoring for Devils Tower National Monument: 2016 data report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/DETO/NRDS—2020/1256. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) began monitoring water quality in the Belle Fourche River at Devils Tower National Monument (DETO) in 2013, with the assistance of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This report summarizes the second sampling season in 2016 for streamflow, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, and pH. The sampling was conducted during the ice-free season from March 9, 2016 to November 1, 2016. 2016 was a dry year and stage height on the Belle Fourche River peaked at 2.9 feet in early August, 5 ft lower than the highest recorded in 2013. There was considerable seasonal variation in all water quality measures. A summary of our results can be found in Descriptive Statistics Summary tables for the ice-free season (Table 3 in Results section) and for each month (Table 4 in Results section). Notably, dissolved oxygen concentrations dropped below 5 mg/ L, a Wyoming state water quality standard, 21 times during mid-June 2016. NGPN’s collaboration with USGS supported real-time and archived access to this data through the USGS National Water Information System Website, where it remains available to the public.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Ashton, Isabel; Rockwood, Stephanie
- Date of Issue
- 2020-02
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DETO , NGPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- monitoring report, water quality monitor