Pre-construction water quality monitoring of the Upper Susquehanna River Watershed-Cooperstown Area Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study And Integrated Environmental Assessment

From March to September 2003, the Biological Field Station conducted weekly pre-construction water quality monitoring at three sites selected in the United States Army Corps of Engineers Upper Susquehanna River Watershed-Cooperstown Area Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study And Integrated Environmental Assessment. The sites monitored were Daley, Palumbo and Rum Hill (the latter serving as a reference site). Monitoring consisted of chemical, physical and biological parameters designed to measure the ability of the restored sites to retain nutrients, bacteria, and sediment as compared to the ‘pristine’ reference site. Values for total nitrogen, nitrate, ammonia, total phosphorus and fecal coliform were significantly higher (ANOVA, P<0.05) at the Daley site with no significant differences between Palumbo and Rum Hill. For suspended sediments, both Daley and Rum Hill were similar while both were significantly higher than Palumbo. No significant differences were found between sites for temperature, dissolved oxygen or pH. However, conductivity was significantly different between sites in the order of Daley>Palumbo>Rum Hill. Land use during the sampling period differed substantially between sites. Although site comparisons have limited value at this time, pre-construction data will serve as a baseline with which post-construction data sets, collected annually hereafter, can be compared.