I need editing help for TMDL paper for a water body.
Ebn976.
hw6_ken27s_lake.docxMohammad Al Ali
Dr. Laurie McNeill
CEE/PUBH 3610
10/12/16
Ken’s Lake
The Mill Creek Watershed located in the southeastern Utah has an off – stream reservoir known Ken’s Lake. The location for this lake is San Juan County, Utah HUC # 14030005. Ken’s Lake is approximately ten miles south of Moab. Therefore, the features of the surroundings tend to be an arid, red rock desert with shrub and grassland as vegetation surrounding the lake. The inflow for this body water is flowing from the Sheley Diversion Tunnel from Mill Creek. The outflow is supplying the irrigation system in Moab’s Spanish Valley. This reservoir contains a dam with 95 feet high and 4,050 feet long which is allowing the dam to hold 2,610 acre-feet of water. Because the streams and water bodies have to be protected to serve the environment and its organisms, assessments have to be conducted in order to protect Ken’s Lake.
Eventually, the assessments have been made to classify the beneficial uses for Ken’s Lake. These assessments were conducted based on Utah’s water quality standards. The designated uses have been classified to three classes of beneficial use by the Division of Water Quality (DWQ) in Utah. Because of the intention to protect the lake for recreational uses and aesthetics, the Class 2B is one of the beneficial uses for Ken’s Lake. Class 2B indicates that the purpose of protection is for a secondary contact recreation like wading, boating, or similar uses.
Another class of the beneficial uses for Ken’s Lake is Class 4. It is referring to the purpose of protecting this water body for agricultural uses including irrigation of crops and stock watering. The third beneficial use classification is Class 3A which indicates the use by aquatic wildlife. Class 3A states the protection’s goal to be serving the cold water species of game fish and other cold water aquatic life, including the necessary aquatic organisms in their food chain. The Class 3A of beneficial uses is the impaired classification, and the temperature is the impairment factor.
Ken’s lake is supplied by diversion tunnel from Sheley diversion, and the water is flowing for approximately one mile. The sun is heating the water to a high degree resulting a thermal impairment. Therefore, the significant cause of the impairment is high temperature. Heating the water by the sun in form of solar radiation is the main point source of changing the temperature. Evaporative cooling from wind, lack of shading vegetation, sensible heat loss or conduction, and inflow water are other non-point sources that contribute to change the heat content of the reservoir. Increasing the temperature level is leading the dissolved oxygen to be inadequate for cold water species.
Using Utah’s water quality standards, the assessments assigned the total load for temperature to not exceed 20 degrees Celsius. The current total load for the temperature in Ken’s Lake is not exceeding 20 degrees Celsius in average during October to the end of May. In summer, the temperature is exceeding 20 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, the average temperature from the first day of June to the end of September is expected to be higher than the state’s standard. Therefore, the required water quality endpoint is hard to be achieved during the summer because the impairment is naturally occurring, and the solar radiation will raise the temperature every summer over the standard. In addition, the allocation of the load or the measured calories of solar radiation per day in Ken’s Lake can’t be made.
TMDL
For Temperature in
Ken’s Lake, Utah
http://www.deq.utah.gov/ProgramsServices/programs/water/watersheds/docs/2006/09Sep/Kens_Lake_TMDL.pdf
