Publication Summary

This is the study plan for the Crab Creek Alternate Water Supply Route Study: Water Quality Monitoring.

Each study conducted by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) must have an approved Quality Assurance (QA) Project Plan. The plan describes the objectives of the study and the procedures to be followed to achieve those objectives.

The need for alternate water supply (feed) routes to supply water to Potholes Reservoir results from increased demand for water, lower irrigation return, and a desire to fulfill obligations in the 1945 Columbia Basin Project agreement. One component of this QA Project Plan is to develop a feed route which moves water from Billy Clapp Lake via Middle Crab Creek to Potholes Reservoir.

Ecology, the Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have agreed to cooperatively monitor water quality along portions of the feed routes during 2009-2012. The purpose of the monitoring is to assess the current condition of the water and to measure effects of the increased streamflows along the new feed routes.

Ecology′s Environmental Assessment Program will monitor six surface water sites within middle Crab Creek and up to five wells in the Crab Creek watershed to establish baseline conditions and monitor impacts to surface water and groundwater. These locations will be monitored for four years, 2009-12. Constituents measured will include nutrients, conductivity, pH, temperature, alkalinity, and turbidity. Data will be summarized in a memo to Ecology′s Water Quality Program.

Link to EIM data for User Study ID jros011