Research about Wild Rice River

USGS2025

Suspended sediment and bedload transport along the Main and South Branches, Wild Rice River, northwestern Minnesota, 1979 through 2023

The geologic history and anthropogenic modifications of Minnesota’s Wild Rice River have caused major morphological adjustments, which induce erosion and excess fluvial sediment transport. The excess sediment deposits in the lower Wild Rice River, exacerbating flooding. To help mitigate these problems, the Wild Rice Watershed District has future plans to implement a river restoration on the lower Wild Rice River. The Wild Rice Watershed District collaborated with the U.S. Geological Survey to measure and analyze sediment transport along the Wild Rice River’s Main and South Branches to assess any potential changes in sediment transport among sites and time periods. Time differencing results indicated that all suspended-sediment constituents showed a significant difference between the two sampling periods at one South Branch site but not at the Main Branch site. Piecewise regression analysis better matched the suspended-sediment constituents transport process at most sites by differentiating no relation between suspended-sediment constituents at lower streamflows and a positive relation at higher streamflows at most Wild Rice River sites. Five of the sites showed elevated sediment transport with increasing streamflow. In contrast, the site farthest downstream showed a negative relation with increasing streamflow, indicating that that the lower Wild Rice River is supply limited and deposition is likely occurring upstream and (or) near the site. Overall, the uncertainty in results indicates the complexity of sediment transport in a river when using streamflow as the sole explanatory variable and suggests a need for multisite, multiyear, and multifaceted data.

Minnesota↗

USGS1980

Preimpoundment water quality of the Wild Rice River, Norman County, Minnesota

Water samples have been collected at two sites on the Wild Rice River since September 1974 to establish baseline water-quality characteristics before construction of a reservoir for recreation and flood control near Twin Valley, Minn. A decline in water quality between the sites is shown by mean total phosphorus concentrations, which increase from 0.06 to 0.10 milligram per liter downstream, and mean turbidity, which increases from 12 to 24 units downstream. Phosphorus and ammonia concentrations, as high as 0.31 and 2.7 milligrams per liter, respectively, could be the result of domestic waste input to the river upstream from Hendrum. Biochemical oxygen demand concentrations were significantly higher during spring runoff than during the rest of the year. Four out of 90 bacteria samples taken at Twin Valley indicate the presence of human fecal material, though bacteria densities do not exceed recommendations of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for public-water supplies. The dominace of organic-pollution tolerant phytoplankton in 49 out of 78 samples also indicates degradation of the river quality at Twin Valley. Nutrient concentrations at Twin Valley have no apparent effect on phytoplankton concentrations. None of the consitituents sampled were found to exceed recommended concentrations for public-water supplies.

Minnesota↗