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Water Quality and Streamflow Data for the Clark Fork near Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Southwestern Montana, Water Years 2019 - 2020

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Park Service(NPS), initiated a study using surrogate technology to predict real-time metallic-contaminant concentrations (MCCs) in the Clark Fork at two USGS streamgages that bracket Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site (GRKO) near Deer Lodge, Montana. Clark Fork at Deer Lodge (streamgage 12324200), Mont., about one mile upstream from GRKO, and Clark Fork above Little Blackfoot River near Garrison (streamgage 12324400), Mont., about 12 miles downstream from GRKO property were instrumented with turbidity and acoustic sensors for monitoring the Clark Fork during NPS Superfund remediation activities. Time-series data from backscatter signals from fixed-point turbidity and acoustic sensors were correlated with discrete MCC samples collected from the Clark Fork and were used as surrogates for estimating real-time cadmium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, zinc, and the metalloid trace element arsenic. A stepwise regression approach was used to develop statistical models to predict MCCs based on instantaneous values of turbidity and acoustic backscatter. Simple linear regression (SLR) models using turbidity as the sole explanatory variable produced the best models with R-squared values exceeding 0.90 in 9 of 12 models. Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency values were used to evaluate the effectiveness of predictive models to approximate measured MCCs, and model biases were calculated as an additional check on model accuracy. The R-LOADEST statistical package was used to compute annual and daily metallic-contaminant loads (MCLs) along with 95-percent prediction intervals. R-LOADEST loads were compared to time-series computed loads to evaluate the applicability of time-series data for calculating daily and annual MCLs. Results from annual load estimates indicated an increase in loads for all metallic contaminants between the two monitoring sites. These results provided real-time information to NPS management for evaluating variation in water quality during Superfund remediation, comparing MCC values relative to aquatic life standards, and will help quantify benefits from NPS remediation activities.

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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date July 19, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 19, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/0e1d7c7cb29b3e91106ad13975c2a71d
Identifier USGS:64879df5d34ef77fcafe1cd1
Data Last Modified 20230810
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://datainventory.doi.gov/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 5126c470-5af2-40a5-84eb-063dcd65937e
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -112.8433,46.3678,-112.6854,46.5494
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 8f8e7bde47259f60737cec9c759929c6b6b3578fedd9d29a0a8b9457460680d4
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -112.8433, 46.3678, -112.8433, 46.5494, -112.6854, 46.5494, -112.6854, 46.3678, -112.8433, 46.3678}

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