The Russian River watershed is an important resource for drinking water and recreation. Sonoma Water relies on the Russian River to provide drinking water to over 620,000 Sonoma County and Marin, CA residents. Nearly 1 million visitors enjoy numerous recreational opportunities on the Russian River annually. Wildfires have increased in frequency and intensity in Northern California and research is ongoing to address water-quality impacts during post-fire rainstorm events, including increased loading of sediments, nutrients, major ions, and metals.
This data release presents results from the analyses of surface water samples collected within the Russian Watershed between 2017-2019 occurring before and after the Sonoma and Napa County Fires in October 2017. The twelve data tables provide the results and associated quality assurance values for field data, alkalinity, dissolved organic carbon, absorbance at 254 nm, fluorescence excitation and emission, total dissolved nitrogen, anions, ammonium, mercury, iron speciation, trace metals, and ion charge balance.