September 2011 monitoring

September 3… day 79 of 100+ degree heat. Hopefully it will start cooling down soon – at least it seems to be hitting 100+ a bit later each day.

The stream hasn’t dried up but it’s very low and there’s virtually no flow.  The surface has a bit of a film on it – almost a scum or a sheen. The surface has some algae and new plants have grown into areas of the shallow water. There is also some new submerged algae upstream; the old, dead algae is gone – decomposed? The stream bed above the waterfall is almost uniformly and completely covered with gray-green debris (maybe the old algae) and the new algae is growing through it and from it (see the photos).

Around the waterfall there is much dead algae where the water has receded – apparently “damp” isn’t enough to sustain its growth. And the wooded areas at and beyond the banks are incredibly dry – it’s heartbreaking.

There are numerous tiny fish (baby minnows?) both around the sample site and upstream of the waterfall. We saw what appears to be a fish hatchery about 2 meters upstream of the sample pool – a small area by the bank  was cleared of debris and there were a lot of little fish swimming around there.

As expected, the e-coli counts remain low – a 3 ML sample showed about 116 colonies (below the EPA-established level of 394 colony forming units). If the formerly high levels came from a leaky sewage pipe, the best guess is that the soil surrounding the leak is so dry it’s absorbing the liquid and the bacteria before it reaches the stream. One of the few good things about the drought…and I’m ready for the levels to rise if it means more rain!

Measurements:

Water temp: 25 C (77 F)
Air temp:     31 C (87 F)

As expected, the Dissolved Oxygen was very low, about 0.8 (15%)

Specific Conductance: 460

7.5 pH (neutral / normal)

Nitrates .25 mg/L

Dissolved solids / visibility .79 meters

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crossing area & under bridge

view of bridge from upstream

sample site & downstream

sample pool from north bank

sample site from north bank

crossing area & south bank

low water line at the sample site

stream & under bridge

stream & under bridge from north bank

view of under bridge from downstream

fish catchery? closeup

fish hatchery area?

water flowing into stream from storm culvert

stream under bridge

under bridge & downstream

upstream of bridge

culvert and upstream

culvert & stream from above the culvert

stream below waterfall

stream above waterfall

waterfall & downstream area

waterfall area – tiny trickle & dead algae

just above waterfall

stream immediately above waterfall-new algae

above waterfall – stream and new algae

new algae closeup

closeup of upstream water with new algae

new underwater algae closeup

upstream closeup of stream bed

upstream

dry trees