A one-dimensional, steady-state, dissolved-oxygen model and waste-load assimilation study for Silver Creek, Clark and Floyd counties, Indiana
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Abstract
The Indiana State Board of Health is developing a State water-quality management plan that includes establishing limits for wastewater effluents discharged into Indiana streams. A digital model calibrated to conditions in Silver Creek was used to develop alternatives for future waste loadings that would be compatible with Indiana stream water-quality standards defined for two critical hydrologic conditions, summer and winter low flows. Effluents from the Sellersburg and Clarksville-North wastewater-treatment facilities are the only point-source waste loads that significantly affect the water quality in the modeled segment of Silver Creek.
Model simulations indicate that nitrification is the most significant factor affecting the dissolved-oxygen concentration in Silver Creek during summer and winter low flows.
Natural streamflow in Silver Creek during the summer and annual 7-day, 10-year low flow is zero, so no benefit from dilution is provided. Present ammonia-nitrogen and dissolved-oxygen concentrations of effluent from the Sellersburg and Clarksville-North wastewater-treatment facilities will not meet current Indiana water-quality standards for ammonia toxicity and dissolved oxygen during summer and winter low flows.
The current biochemical-oxygen-demand limits for the Sellersburg and Clarksville-North wastewater-treatment facilities are not sufficient to maintain an average dissolved-oxygen concentration of at least 5 milligrams per liter, the State's water-quality standard for streams.
Calculations of the stream's assimilative capacity indicate that Silver Creek cannot assimilate additional waste loadings and meet current Indiana water-quality standards.
Study Area
| Publication type | Report |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | USGS Numbered Series |
| Title | A one-dimensional, steady-state, dissolved-oxygen model and waste-load assimilation study for Silver Creek, Clark and Floyd counties, Indiana |
| Series title | Open-File Report |
| Series number | 79-1253 |
| DOI | 10.3133/ofr791253 |
| Year Published | 1979 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Description | vii, 66 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | Indiana |
| County | Clark County, Floyd County |
| Other Geospatial | Silver Creek |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |