Abstract

Hydrologic and water-quality data were collected at Bower Creek during the periods before best-management practices (BMPs), and after BMPs were installed for evaluation of water-quality improvements. The monitoring was done between 1990 and 2009 with the pre-BMP period ending in July 1994 and the post-BMP period beginning in October 2006. BMPs installed in this basin included streambank protection and fencing, stream crossings, grade stabilization, buffer strips, various barnyard-runoff controls, nutrient management, and a low degree of upland BMPs. Water-quality evaluations included base-flow concentrations and storm loads for total suspended solids, total phosphorus, and ammonia nitrogen. The only reductions detected between the base-flow samples of the pre- and post-BMP periods were in median concentrations of total phosphorus from base-flow samples, but not for total suspended solids or dissolved ammonia nitrogen. Differences in storm loads for the three water-quality constituents monitored were not observed during the study period.

First posted January 4, 2013