Water Quality Monitoring for Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site: 2022 data report
Rosse A. 2024. Water Quality Monitoring for Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site: 2022 data report. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) began monitoring water quality in the Knife River at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site (KNRI) in 2013, with the assistance of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This report summarizes the data collected during the 2022 ice-free season (April 1 through October 14) for streamflow, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, and pH. This was the fourth season of continuous monitoring. Compared to earlier sampling periods in 2013, 2016, and 2019, 2022 was a wetter year. Discharge on the Knife River at Stanton peaked at 2,020 cubic feet per second (cfs) May 15th, 2022. For context, the highest flow in 2013 was 5,330 cfs, 2016 was 806 cfs, and 2019 peaked at 1,900 cfs. 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) and for each month (Table 4). Notably, water temperature exceeded state standards (Table 1) in summer months although these exceedances made up about 2.1% of all records.