Discriminating Between West Side Sources Of Nutrients And Organic Carbon Contributing To Algal Grow And Oxygen Demand In The San Joaquin River PDF Download

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Salt and Mud Slough tributaries as sources of oxygen demanding materials entering the San Joaquin River (SJR). Mud Slough and Salt Slough are the main drainage arteries of the Grasslands Watershed, a 370,000-acre area west of the SJR, covering portions of Merced and Fresno Counties. Although these tributaries of the SJR are typically classified as agricultural, they are also heavily influenced by Federal, State and private wetlands. The majority of the surface water used for both irrigation and wetland management in the Grassland Watershed is imported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta through the Delta-Mendota Canal. In this study, they measured algal biomass (as chlorophyll a), organic carbon, ammonia, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and other measures of water quality in drainage from both agricultural and wetland sources at key points in the Salt Slough and Mud Slough tributaries. This report includes the data collected between June 16th and October 4th, 2001. The objective of the study was to compare agricultural and wetland drainage in the Grasslands Watershed and to determine the relative importance of each return flow source to the concentration and mass loading of oxygen demanding materials entering the SJR. Additionally, they compared the quality of water exiting our study area to water entering our study area. This study has demonstrated that Salt and Mud Sloughs both contribute significant amounts of oxygen demand to the SJR. Together, these tributaries could account for 35% of the oxygen demand observed below their confluence with the SJR. This study has characterized the sources of oxygen demanding materials entering Mud Slough and evaluated the oxygen demand conditions in Salt Slough. Salt Slough was found to be the dominant source of oxygen demand load in the study area, because of the higher flows in this tributary. The origins of oxygen demand in Salt Slough still remain largely uninvestigated and the seasonal oxygen demand loading pattern remains unexplained. An expanded investigation of the Salt Slough watershed is warranted, because of the importance of this watershed to the oxygen demand load entering the SJR.