Upper Los Pinos Water Quality Report

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wildlife resources of the reservoir and project area (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1949) which provides baseline ilifornation for environmental and ecological conditions in the region shortly after construction of the reservoir (1942). Information and data about the Pine River Irrigation Project and Vallecito Reservoir can be found on the web site for the Bureau of Recla- mation (http://~~~~w.usbr.gov/dataweb/hUnl/ pineriver.hUnl; http://w~~~~-.usbr.gov/uc%vcao%vaer/ rsvrs/ds/vallecito.html, accessed January- 20, 2000. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has a program where school children collect water-quality samples for long-term monitoring of streams and rivers. More information about the River Watch program can be found at http://wildlife.state.co.us/riveiwatch (accessed January- 20, 2005). Water-quality data «-ere collected by the U.S. Geological Stuvev (USGS) in the lower Los Pinos River watershed relating to contaminants in irrigation drainage (Butler and others, 1993); however, no samples were collected in the upper Los Pirios River watershed. Awater-quality study of the Vallecito Reservoir area was done in 1992 bV the Bureau of Reclamation at the request of the Colorado Water Quality Control Division. Data can be found in a report produced by the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau of Reclamation, 1990. A water-qualit~T study was done by the USGS in 1996-97 relating to Vallecito Reservoir and the possibility of formation of disinfectant b~--products if the reservoir was to be used for public drinking water supply (Ranalli and Evans, 1999). The Vallecito Creels strearnflow gaging st<ltion operated by the USGS is part of the USGS Hydrologic Benchmark Network (Mast and Turk, 1999); water- qualit<--data have been collected from the gaging station since 198. Most, but not all, of the USGS data can be found Ili digital format on the Internet (http://~~~~w.usgs.gov). Since 1997, water-quality data and field water- qualit<-parameters have been collected by the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, a grass roots effort of dedicated volunteers from the Vallecito Lake community. Measurements of field parameters in lake profiles have taken place on a monthly basis during summer and fall months. The volunteers have been instrumental in monitoring the water quality of the upper Los Pinos River watershed, and they would like to ensure that the streams and lakes of the watershed remain of good quality. Data Compilation Data compiled for this report were accessed from several sources--online electronic data downloaded from the intemet, hard copy reports, and hard copy laborator-~- analyses. Electronic data were downloaded from the U.S. Geological Surve~T National Water Information System (http://water.usgs.gov/ nwis) where streamflow and water-quality data «-ere available for USGS sites. Some of the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program data were available from the USGS data base. Electronic data also were do~~nloaded from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Storet data base (http://w«w.epa.gov/storet). Data collected by the U.S. Forest Service and the Colorado River Watch Program were downloaded from the EPA Storet data base. Electronic files were do~inloaded as htrnl or tent files, and the data were imported into a spreadsheet (Microsoft Eiceh"") where the data ~~-ere tabulated and graphed. Data were compiled from hard copy reports available from the Bureau of Reclamation and the USGS (not all of the USGS hard-copy report data were available online). Report data were typed directly into the spreadsheet and appended to the electronic data file. Data also were compiled from hard copy laborator~r analyses available from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe- the Enviromnental Protection Agency, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Hard copy lake profile data were available from the Volunteer Lake Monitor7ng Program. Hard copy laborator-~T analyses and lake profile data were typed directly into the spreadsheet and appended to the electronic data file. Site locations are described in table 1. The spreadsheet data file- contaiiung all of the water- quality data, is too large to be included iii this report; the spreadsheet data can be obtained from the San Juan RCc~D. Geographical Information System Locations of sites in the upper Los Piiios River watershed were determined by several methods. For electronic data, the latitude and longitude usualhT accompanied the electronic water-quality data from online sources. For hard copy report and laborator-~- analysis data, many of the site locations were Water-Quality Data Synthesis for the Upper Los Pinos River Watershed, In cooperation with the Colorado Watershed Protection Fund and Southwestern Colorado, and Suggestions for a Watershed Plan, 2005 the San Juan Resource Conservation and Development Council