U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Proposed National Sediment and Water-Quality Monitoring Program Piloted in the Mississippi River Basin – A Synopsis Dave Rus (USGS), representing an interagency group that also includes: Dale W. Blevins (USGS), Charlie Demas (USGS), John Gray (USGS), Dave Heimann (USGS), Art Horowitz (USGS), Chuck E. Shadie (COE), Jim Stefanov (USGS), Rick Wilson (USGS), Andy Ziegler (USGS), and many other USGS/COE colleagues 2010 Missouri River Natural Resources Committee Conference Nebraska City, Nebraska, March 19, 2010

Presentation Outline  Need for monitoring program  The proposed program  The program’s approach  Next steps

Sediment can be costly  Sediment damages in North America (mostly in US) total $20-$50 BILLION annually (ARS- USGS)  COE dredging programs in MRB alone total ~$1billion annually  EPA, NOAA, USDA, others have major investments in MRB Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need

Sediment (or lack thereof) can be detrimental  As much as 25 mi 2 Louisiana coast lost annually  Northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxia  Endangered species management  Reservoir lifespans  Flood impacts Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need

Proposal workgroup  A COE/USGS group met to address  Consistency issues  Monitoring shortcomings  The result? (besides lots of meetings/conference calls)  A COE/USGS proposal for a National Sediment & WQ Monitoring Program Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need

Vision: A National Sediment & WQ Monitoring Program USGS/COE Proposal that will… Establish a long-term, base-funded, network-designed national monitoring program to generate sediment, nutrient, and sediment-associated chemical concentrations, loads, budgets and temporal trends that are integrated within existing networks. Mississippi Basin will be the pilot program that grows into a national network Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need

Program Objectives  Establish a monitoring program capable of:  Accurate sediment/chemical budgets  Budgets at critical spatial/temporal scales  Constraining/quantifying uncertainty  Determine trends/loads relevant to the various economic/ecologic/restoration activities of a river Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need

National Program Cost/Benefits  stations at $75-$90M annually  Pilot program in Mississippi River Basin proposed at $17.6M in FY2012  National program cost is <1% of estimated sediment costs/damages Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need  Ergo, if the program facilitates a 1% reduction in sediment damages, it will pay for itself

MRB Pilot Program - Scope  68 stations  Max use of USGS gages & programs  Constituents  Suspended sediment (full gradation)  Nutrients, ions, trace metals, pesticides  Bed material (2 samples per year)  Bedload (Evaluated at 6 sites – 2 on the Missouri) Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsProgram need

Monitoring approach  An emphasis on using surrogates  Surrogates are related to sediment/chemicals in the water and are measured continuously  Need to calibrate a surrogate model with traditional sampling data Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsBackground

Surrogates  Streamflow, Turbidity, acoustic backscatter, ultraviolet nitrate, laser-based sensors Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsBackground UV Nitrate Acoustic Backscatter Laser-Based Turbidity

Sampling  Traditional sampling  samples/year  Using Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project (FISP) samplers Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsBackground

Synthesis of monitoring data  All data online in near- real time and publicly available  ID principal sources/sinks of sediment, nutrients, other QW constituents Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsBackground  Identify phase of transport of sediments as a function of location, flow, other variables waterwatch.usgs.gov

MRB Pilot Prelude?  Interest in initiating Louisiana MRB monitoring in 2010 (Science and Technology Program – COE and Louisiana).  Proof-of-concept / demonstration for surrogate monitoring, and shake-out for methodologies/protocols.  Will enable us to “hit the ground running” in 2012 Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsBackground

What’s next?  Proposal being considered by senior leadership within the USGS and COE for inclusion as a 2012 budget initiative  In the meantime, sharing the concept to potential partners and stakeholders Proposed programProgram approachNext stepsBackground

16 Dave Rus(402) Water Science Center Proposal team leader: John Gray(703) Office of Surface Water Thanks for listening Remnant dunes at the Nebraska City marina following high water of June 2008