Bighorn River Water Quality at Kane, Wyoming

Overview

In the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming, dominant cations are calcium and sodium and dominant anions are bicarbonate and sulfate. Relative to the Bighorn River near Fort Smith, Montana, there is a significant amount of variation in measured analytes including total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (P), and nitrate + nitrite as nitrogen (NO3 + NO2 as N). In unregulated rivers, total suspended solids and total phosphorus are typically at their annual maxima during high flows and that was true for this sampling location.

Background levels of nitrate + nitrite as nitrogen and total phosphorus in the Bighorn River near Kane, Wyoming, were 0.09 mg/L and 0.12 mg/L in April 2019 but increased to 0.27 mg/L and 1.17 mg/L when we sampled during high flows in late May. In 2019, ammonia as nitrogen (NH3 as N) levels were below detection levels (e.g., <0.05 mg/L) on all sampling occasions. Wyoming's surface water quality standards currently include only narrative criteria to protect designated uses from nutrient pollution.

2019 Water Quality Lab Results

The following table contains quarterly water quality lab results for the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming. Download tabular data here for this table.

Table 1. Quarterly water quality lab results for Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming. All values presented are in mg/L. RL = Report limit; ND = non-detectable result; "–" = missing value.

2019 Water Quality Field Results

The following table contains quarterly water quality field parameter results for the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming. Download tabular data here for this table.

Table 2. Summary of quarterly field parameter results for Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming.

More Data

Data prior to 2016 are available at the Water Quality Portal using BICAWQ01 for the project and 11NPSWRD_WQX-BICA_BHR2 as the site identifier for the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming.

Part of a series of articles titled
Water Resources Monitoring in the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming, 2019.

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Water Flow in the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming

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Monitoring Methods for the Bighorn River at Kane, Wyoming

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• Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

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