Potash Brook (Lake Champlain Direct Flow) - Tier 2 Report - Chase Rosenberg, 05/13/15

Physical Parameters Assessment

Investigator Name(s): 

Team Evolution (Chase Rosenberg)

Collection Date & Time: 

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 - 9:30am

School: 

Edmunds Middle School

Watershed: 

Lake Champlain Direct & Grand Isle Basins

River: 

Potash Brook (Lake Champlain Direct Flow)

Monitoring Site: 

Potash Brook - top site

Site Description: 

Urban forest preserve surrounded by roads, residential, and agricultural land.

Surrounding Development or Land Use: 

Farm

Park

Residential

Forest

Crops

Do you see any pipes entering into the river?: 

No

Is there a water treatment plant upstream?: 

No

Canopy Cover: 

51-75%

Water Appearance: 

Clear

Cloudy

Tea-colored

Muddy

Foamy

Average Embeddedness: 

51-75%

Exact Location

Latitude: 

44.45

Longitude: 

-73.20

Weather

Present: 

Overcast

Past 48 Hours: 

Clear/Sunny

Overcast

Showers

Steady Rain

Heavy Rain

Average Transparency/Turbidity

No Impact: >60 cm - 17cm = 0-50 ntu
Possible Impact: 17 - 8cm = 65-150 ntu
Impacted: 8 - < 6 cm = >150 ntu

Height of Water Column: 

120.00cm

Chemical Assessment

Average Temperature: 

12.00°C

Average pH: 

6.50

Average Orthophosphate PO4-3: 

0.05mg/L

Average Dissolved Oxygen: 

13.00mg/L

Stream Habitat Assessment

Streambed Composition: 

Mixture of cobbles, gravels, and sand (3)

Streambank Stability: 

Moderately stable banks – some areas of erosion visible (1)

Deepest pool is at least: 

Knee deep (1)

Velocity: 

Moderately fast – slowly takes objects downstream (1)

Riparian Vegetation: 

Mixture of trees, shrubs, and grasses (3)

Riparian Vegetative Zone Width: 

Buffer zone is greater than 100 feet (3)

Streambed Cover

Rock ledges: 

1

Submerged logs, stumps, or tree roots: 

1

Large rocks: 

1

Artificial objects: 

0

Other: 

0

Stream Habitat Quality Score

Calculated by adding all of the points from the above fields.

18-22 (Excellent)
11-17 (Good)
6-10 (Fair)
0-5 (Poor)

Stream Habitat Quality Score for This Report: 

15

Biological Assessment

PT Group 1 (Intolerant)

# of Taxa: 

4

PT Group 2 (Moderately Intolerant)

# of Taxa: 

2

PT Group 3 (Fairly Tolerant)

# of Taxa: 

1

PT Group 4 (Very Tolerant)

# of Taxa: 

1

Pollution Tolerance Index Rating

Calculated as follows:
4*(# of Taxa in PT Group 1) + 3*(# of Taxa in PT Group 2) + 2*(# of Taxa in PT Group 3) + 1*(# of Taxa in PT Group 4)

23+ (Excellent)
17-22 (Good)
11-16 (Fair)
0-10 (Poor)

PTI Rating for This Report: 

25.00