The USGS–NPS Water-Quality Partnership, 1998–2016

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Park Service (NPS) work together through the USGS–NPS Water-Quality Partnership on high-priority water-quality problems in national parks. It began in 1998 under the Clean Water Action Plan, a presidential initiative marking the Clean Water Act's 25th anniversary. Projects are designed jointly; USGS does the studies, and the NPS uses the findings to set policy and management.

The program

• What parks hold: parts of the Great Lakes, ocean and coastal zones, historic canals, reservoirs, large rivers, high-elevation lakes and streams, geysers, springs and wetlands.
• Scale: 217 projects in 119 parks, from Denali to the Everglades and Acadia to Hawaii and the Pacific islands; 189 publications (list).
• Competition: USGS scientists propose projects with park staff each year; only about eight of roughly 75 proposals are funded.
• Range: from routine stream monitoring to measuring contaminants against human-health and aquatic-life criteria, to studying how visitors and other activities affect park waters. Some feature in the NPS Crystal Clear centennial initiative.

Mine cleanup at Denali

When a court injunction stopped most mining in Denali National Park and Preserve in 1985, 35 operations were active. In the Kantishna Hills, low mountains in the park's northwest, mining for gold, silver, lead, antimony and zinc from 1903 to 1985 caused acid mine drainage and heavy sediment, fouling clear streams that support nine fish species, including Arctic grayling and three species of salmon. Scars still mark more than 1,500 acres in 12 watersheds.

Slate Creek, Kantishna Hills, stained red by acid mine drainage, August 21, 2008. Dan Long, USGS.

With a short growing season limiting natural recovery, the park removed hazardous materials (fuel barrels, batteries, contaminated soil, old equipment), rebuilt flood plains and channels, moved tailings piles or rerouted streams away from them, and replanted. A 2008–2011 USGS–NPS study tested whether it worked:

• Life in the stream: Caribou Creek, reclaimed, had insect communities like an undisturbed reference stream (Rock Creek); unreclaimed Slate and Friday creeks were the worst.
• Standards: Caribou Creek now meets the EPA turbidity standard, and Alaska removed it from the Clean Water Act 303(d) list of impaired waters.
• Acidity: all sites but Slate Creek stayed within pH 7.5–8.5, suited to cold-water fish; Slate Creek ranged 6.2–7.8.
• Result: the NPS reclaimed Slate Creek with similar success and is extending the methods to other streams.

Monitoring Caribou Creek to judge whether reclamation restored its water. Dan Long, USGS.

Algae at Voyageurs

Kabetogama Lake, in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, has suffered algae from excess nutrients. Its southwest shore, outside the park, is lined with homes, cabins and resorts along about 19 km, and the Ash River brings runoff from developed areas.

In 2000, operating rules for the lake's dams changed to restore more natural water levels and cut phosphorus. Partnership studies begun in 2008 and 2012 found algae had decreased even though phosphorus hadn't changed much. Comparing 1977–1999 with 2000–2011:

Because the U.S.–Canada border splits these lakes, the International Joint Commission sets the rules for their privately owned dams; the study's results are informing its review of its 2000 Rule Curves.

Monitoring Kabetogama Lake, Voyageurs National Park. Victoria Christenson, USGS.

Hikers and pack stock in the Sierra

Wilderness recreation approached 17 million visitor-days a year in 2010, expected to grow nearly 20 percent by 2050. In Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite, USGS compared waters with minimal use, backpackers only, and mixed backpacker and pack-animal use, sampling upstream and downstream and using in-stream sensors.

Colony-forming units per 100 mL.

Sampling streamflow and water quality in the Sierra Nevada. Harrison Forrester, NPS.

E. coli in streams and lakes of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, fall 2010, by type of recreational use. USGS.

• Pack animals had a small but statistically significant effect; backpackers barely any.
• Bacteria and nutrients were low except during storms.
• Earlier studies had blamed pack stock using total coliforms, which are everywhere; E. coli, the true fecal indicator, didn't track them and had many sources — people, wildlife and stock.
• Result: current and projected use, including pack animals, is not a major threat to resources or health — findings used in the parks' Wilderness Stewardship Plan.

Bacteria forecasts on the Cuyahoga

Ohio designates the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Valley National Park for full-body contact, with an E. coli single-sample standard of 298 CFU per 100 mL — which 50 percent of USGS samples exceeded in 2004–2011. The park wanted to promote river use while warning its 2.2 million annual visitors.

• Since 2004: "nowcasts" estimated E. coli from turbidity, posted on the Ohio Nowcast site — but relied on daily manual sampling.
• 2012: an in-stream turbidity sensor at Jaite began relaying data every 15 minutes. New models using it and NWS radar rainfall post conditions by 9 a.m. daily, with no manual sampling. Tested 2012–2014, they were right 79 percent of the time at Jaite and 77 percent at Lock 29, 5.3 miles upstream.
• Result: fewer unnecessary river closures, and kayakers can check predicted bacteria levels online.

Sampling at the Cuyahoga River's Lock 29 Bridge. Amie Brady, USGS.

Summary

The partnership pairs park managers' priorities with a rigorous proposal review and USGS science, building long-standing relationships and cost-effective results that help protect park waters for future generations. More: USGS–NPS Water-Quality Partnership.

Sources

Based on The Water-Quality Partnership for National Parks—U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service, 1998–2016, by Mark A. Nilles, Peter E. Penoyer, Amy S. Ludtke and Alan C. Ellsworth, U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2016–3041 (DOI; publication page), citing Brabets and Ourso (2013), Christensen and others (2011), Christensen and Maki (2015), Clow and others (2013) and Brady and Plona (2015). Photographs and the E. coli map are restored from the fact sheet's PDF; its project map, on a licensed commercial basemap, is left out. A work of the United States government in the public domain.