Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir drainage area, Rhode Island, water year 2021

Abstract

As part of a long-term cooperative program to monitor water quality within the Scituate Reservoir drainage area, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Providence Water (formerly Providence Water Supply Board) collected streamflow and water-quality data in tributaries to the Scituate Reservoir, Rhode Island. Streamflow and concentrations of chloride and sodium estimated from records of specific conductance for 16 tributaries were used to calculate loads of chloride and sodium during water year 2021 (October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021). Water-quality samples were collected by Providence Water at 36 sampling stations on tributaries to the Scituate Reservoir during water year 2021. These water-quality data are summarized by using values of central tendency and are used, in combination with measured (or estimated) streamflows, to calculate loads and yields of selected water-quality constituents for water year 2021. Annual mean streamflows for monitoring stations in this study ranged from 0.37 to 32.4 cubic feet per second during water year 2021. At the 16 continuous-record streamgages, tributaries transported about 2,900 metric tons (t) of chloride and 1,800 t of sodium to the Scituate Reservoir; annual chloride yields for the tributaries ranged from 15 to 110 metric tons per square mile (t/mi 2 ), and annual sodium yields ranged from 10 to 68 t/mi 2 . At the stations where water-quality samples were collected by Providence Water, the medians of the median daily loads were 180 kilograms per day for chloride, 12 grams per day as nitrogen for nitrite, less than 700 grams per day as nitrogen for nitrate, 410 grams per day as orthophosphate for phosphate, 71,000 million colony forming units per day for coliform bacteria, and less than 2,000 million colony forming units per day for Escherichia coli . The medians of the median yields were 67 kilograms per day per square mile for chloride, 4.2 grams per day per square mile as nitrogen for nitrite, 400 grams per day per square mile as nitrogen for nitrate, 180 grams per day per square mile as orthophosphate as phosphate, 46,000 million colony forming units per day per square mile for coliform bacteria, and 1,000 million colony forming units per day per square mile for Escherichia coli .