March 2016 monitoring

Posted by: upperwalnutcreekaustin | March 13, 2016

March 2016 monitoring

March 12 was absolutely gorgeous! Especially after several days of clouds and (much needed) rain – nearly 4 inches. The surface algae was completely gone and the stream was full, with a good flow. The waterfall was gurgling merrily. And the new hike and bike trail appears to be complete and is very popular. We saw lots of walkers and joggers with dogs or strollers and cyclists who were also enjoying the beautiful weather. And upstream near the waterfall a tai chi instructor was working with a student.

The stream is flowing strongly around the gravel bar, which is now an island, similar to what it was before construction of the trail. Upstream above the waterfall the inlet is full for the first time in months. The water is high enough that I couldn’t walk past it without getting my feet wet. Adios “sometime island” (raised rocks in the middle of the stream further upstream), at least for a while. Wonder how high the stream had been? Clearly much higher, based on the puddles that were everywhere, including under the bridge. The ground was also soft and somewhat spongy from all the rain.

We saw a big turtle at the sample site but didn’t see or hear any pigeons or fish. The lack of fish wasn’t surprising with the strong current.

The e-coli count was low for this site, with 3 ML samples there were about 200 colonies.

Observations:
air temp 19 C
water temp 17 C
dissolved oxygen 6.35
specific conductance 440
pH 7.0
Nitrites .5
transparency 1.02 meters