Water Quality Monitoring Projects

Drain

Orchard

The issue of temporal variability of water quality in irrigation return flows is particularly pertinent to the Agricultural Discharge Waivers Program in California. This program mandates growers and/or coalition groups to monitor water quality in agricultural watersheds and better understand pollutant discharge from non-point source pollution. Due to the expensive nature of water quality analysis, it is crucial to streamline monitoring protocols to minimize sample number without compromising accuracy. To date, there is little published research examining temporal variability of water quality in agricultural tailwaters and the pertinence to developing cost-effective/accurate monitoring protocols. We are working to document variability in water quality of tailwaters and to develop statistically valid sampling strategies.

Algae florescence peaks at about 6:00 pm decreases overnight to a low around 10:00 am. This waxing and waning of algae is equivalent to a 5.6 to 11.1 ppm change in dissolved oxygen which is concerning based on the current TMDL.

Graph 1

Florescence Graph

Sensor

Sensor closeup