Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Low flow water quality data for the Animas River, Arrastra Creek to Silverton, Colorado, September 2021

Metadata Updated: November 27, 2025

A synoptic sampling campaign was conducted on the Animas River near Silverton, Colorado, under low flow conditions in September 2021. The sampling campaign was designed to quantify constituent loading and identify sources of contamination along a 3.8-kilometer study reach. The study reach began approximately 170 meters upstream of Arrastra Creek and extended downstream to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gage 09358000 within the city of Silverton, Colorado. A continuous, instream injection of a sodium bromide tracer was initiated at the head of the study reach three days prior to the start of the sampling campaign and maintained until the completion of main stem sampling. Bromide concentrations were subsequently used to determine streamflow using the tracer-dilution method. Water quality samples were collected at 23 sites along the Animas River main stem, and 28 inflow sites including springs, seeps, small tributaries, and ponded water. Main stem sites were sampled using three sampling approaches. Under the first approach, a subset of 8 main stem sites were sampled "simultaneously" (in less than 20 minutes) to assess the effects of diel variation in constituent concentration. Under the second approach, all main stem sites were sampled with the sampling team working in the downstream-to-upstream direction, a protocol typically used during synoptic sampling. A subset of 5 main stem sites were also sampled using an Equal Discharge Increment approach that was designed to indicate which side of the stream was responsible for the observed constituent loads. This data release includes field parameters (water temperature, pH, and specific conductivity), concentration data (inorganic cations and anions), estimated streamflow, and calculated loads for the sampling campaign. Calculated loads may be used to identify and rank sources of contamination to the Animas River. The data release consists of a kmz file showing site locations and the following 3 tables: Table 1, Locations of sampling sites Table 2, Synoptic sampling results, September 20-21, 2021 Table 3, Spatial profiles of streamflow and constituent load

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 27, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 27, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-66353b57d34edc29f409db9e
Data Last Modified 2024-10-22T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 280d5669-bbeb-459b-9847-99eabeedff0e
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 66d4332cdca878513a6c51e90178737645cd4b3e27daceab29bedea1a7863d01
Source Schema Version 1.1

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.