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WWRC 86-13
Nutrient Loading and Flaming Gorge Reservoir

Abstract

Data and analyses are presented for approximately 400 water samples collected at eight locations in the drainage basin of Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Up to 24 chemical parameters were analyzed from each sample (cations: calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium; anions: bicarbonate, carbonate, sulfate, chloride, fluoride, total alkalinity; nutrients: ortho-phosphorus, total phosphorus, sodium hydroxide extractable phosphorus, ammonium, nitrate, total kjelkahl nitrogen, iron, manganese; miscellaneous: conductivity, total dissolved solids, suspended solids, pH, chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand).

In SW Wyoming, NaOH-extractable phosphorus (NaOH-P) is correlated with biologically available phosphorus (bioassays). Data on NaOH-P, ortho-P and suspended solids (N=541) were obtained from a sewage treatment plant and seven streams. Scatter plots, cluster analyses and regression analysis indicated the eight locations could be aggregated into four GROUPs. Regressions were developed to predict ln(NaOH-P) (LNaOH-P) from ln(suspended solids) (LSS), ln(ortho-P) (LOP), GROUP, presence/absence of high flow, and presence/absence of beaver dams. While the percent of explained variation attributable to LOP and LSS exceeded by 5-8 times that attributable to other variables, the effects of other variables were significant; both intercepts and slopes were affected. The explained variance in LNaOH-P for streams ranged from 55-87%, but was only 21% for the treatment plant. The 95% confidence limits on the mean value of NaOH-P (X - 0.8X; X + 7X) indicate that precision generally was poor; the best obtainable precision was X +/- 0.5X. Precision always tended to be poor when LOP was more influential in affecting LNaOH-P than was LSS, but but only in some cases where LSS was highly influential was precision good.


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