Project Detail

ASHLAND COUNTY: Marengo River Streamflow Gaging Station

Purpose

The Ashland County Land and Water Conservation department (LWCD) is sponsoring a project to implement portions of the Marengo River Watershed Action Plan (9K) objective to "establish baseline flows and quantify annual suspended sediment load." This grant will provide cost share funding to partner with the USGS to install a gaging station and equipment to monitor continuous temperature, stage, discharge, and specific conductance. The streamflow gage will be located at the Government Road crossing of the Marengo River. USGS staff will visit the site multiple times to take flow measurements to develop a rating curve. The grant will also provide funding to cost share an intern for Ashland County LWCD to collect water quality samples and record field parameters at 3 sites in the watershed. Project deliverables include: Installation and maintenance of a gaging and water quality monitoring station. Development of a discharge rating curve for the gaging station and calibration and maintenance of the monitoring equipment. USGS will conduct site measurements every 6-8 weeks to calculate the discharge rating and calibrate temperature and specific conductance sensors. Discharge will be reviewed and approved by a senior USGS technician, and then published. Provisional data is anticipated to be posted on the web (USGS). The Ashland County LWCD will hire an intern to monitor dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, turbidity, and specific conductance data monthly at 3 sites during open water beginning in 2021. Sites include Marengo River road crossings at Riemer, Ashland -Bayfield County Line, and Altamont Roads. Data will be publicly available through the DNR SWIMS database. Specific project conditions: All of the water chemistry information collected should be provided to the WDNR or entered in the SWIMS database. WDNR will be provided electronic and hard copies of data and any reports/plans generated as a result of this project.

Project Type

River Grant

Project Sub Type

River Protection Grant

Project ID

RM09021

Year Started

2021

Status

Complete

Activities & Recommendations

Grant Awarded