May 2019 Monitoring

May 19: after at least two weeks of on and off rain – and flooding – it’s been sunny for a few days. And now the temperature is getting close to (and above) the usual highs. And it’s HUMID! Yuk. It’s also incredibly green, thanks to all the recent rain. Wonder how long that will last?

Saw a turtle perched on a partially submerged branch by the sample site and another swimming nearby. Both hurriedly left when spying us. No pigeons or other birds in sight or earshot.

The stream was flowing stronger than normal thanks to the recent rains and there’s no surface algae. There’s enough water flow to span the entire waterfall length (width?). The stream is high enough that someone wanting to cross from the north bank to the south bank would have to get wet feet. There are no stepping stones any more by the trail. And the gravel bar that has been on the downstream side of the bridge is mostly gone.

The water was apparently much higher at some point as we saw some fair sized branches close to the sidewalk, which are about 20 feet from the current stream, as shown in the pictures. There also is some new debris in the culvert that drains from the street level.

E-coli: there were 116 colonies at both the sample and control sites based on 3 ML samples. Within acceptable limits for an urban stream.

Observations:

Air temp 26 C
water temp 23 C
dissolved oxygen 7.4
specific conductance 560
pH 7.0
nitrates 0.9

sample site and downstream from streamside

sample site with turtle on branch in water

closeup of trail crossing area

stream from trail crossing to sample site from north bank

stream under bridge to sample site from north bank

downstream side of stream under bridge

stream under and downstream of bridge from streamside

stream under bridge and beyond

stream under bridge

view from above storm culvert

stream flow upstream side of bridge

upstream view from under bridge

view of stream from culvert to under bridge

closeup of branches dropped by high water

view from middle of stream of branches dropped by high water

upstream view from middle of stream under bridge

stream from waterfall to culvert

waterfall-area

stream above-waterfall-to-past-inlet

algae clumps in inlet above waterfall

water-somewhat-into-inlet

downstream view from inlet

stream above inlet to sometime island rocks area

stream above inlet

new trash in culvert from recent heavy rains

Dissolved Oxygen 7.4