Quality of surface water at selected sites in the Suwannee River basin, Florida, April 1978 to December 1979

Abstract

This report presents the results of analyses of water-quality samples collected from 13 surface-water sites in the Suwannee River basin in Florida from April 1978 to December 1979. The U.S. Geological Survey, in a cooperative investigative program with the Suwannee River Authority, has sampled a network of nine water-quality monitoring stations since 1968 to detect short- and long-term changes in surface-water quality in the Suwannee River. Two additional stations, Camp Branch near Genoa and Rocky Creek near Houston, were established in October 1978. In addition to this 11-station network, Deep Creek and Robinson Creek near Suwannee Valley, which originate in the Osceola National Forest and have been supported since April 1976 through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, have been included in this report. The analyses of samples collected routinely included: nutrients, total organic carbon, and 5-day biological oxygen demand, bimonthly; trace metals, annually. The array of constituents sampled was expanded in October 1978 at three of the original nine stations to provide quality-of-water information for streams draining an industrial area: Rocky Creek near Belmont, Hunter Creek near Belmont, and Swift Creek at Facil. Data collected at these three sites now include: major chemical constituents, six times per year; radium-226, two times per year; and trace metals, one time per year. These constituents are determined in addition to nutrients, total organic carbon, and biological oxygen demand which continue to be collected six times per year. All results of analyses of the water-quality samples collected from April 1978 to December 1979 remained within, or near, previously measured ranges and water-quality fluctuations were similar to those noted from data collected since 1970.