In 2008 the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) initiated a program to monitor Oregon’s surface waters and aquatic biota for the presence of pollutants that pose risks to human and/or environmental health. ODEQ’s Toxics Monitoring Program was first implemented in the Willamette River Basin (WRB) between 2008 and 2010....
The City of Florence, local stakeholders, and partner agencies recently formed the Siuslaw Estuary Partnership (SEP) to address threats to drinking water quality and fish and wildlife habitat in the lower Siuslaw watershed. The Sole Source Dunal Aquifer within the lower Siuslaw watershed, which supplies the City ’s drinking water,...
The Metolius River basin is a sub-basin of the Deschutes Basin within central Oregon. Considered one of the crown jewels of the state, this historically undisturbed basin drew attention in 2009 because the Oregon legislature designated the basin as the first Area of Critical State Concern (ACSC) under the state’s...
Published February 1972. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) aquifers are commonly thought to be relatively flat lying, laterally extensive, and mostly confined, and therefore not likely to be directly connected to surface water. However, many of the CRBG units in south-central Washington and north-central Oregon were deposited within evolving synclinal structures of the...
The McKenzie River serves as the sole source of drinking water for nearly 200,000 residents in Eugene, OR. The McKenzie River is also home to a number of threatened and endangered fish species. Whereas the majority of the upper watershed is forested, areas of rural development and agriculture occur along...
While the negative effects of urban development on freshwater systems are well documented, impacts of human disturbance on water quality vary depending on land cover, local climate, and temporal and spatial scales of analysis. To better understand this variation, we analyzed water quality data for a total of 15 sites...
Conventional monitoring to assess water quality of drinking water sources in streams and rivers is typically focused on identifying primary sources and conditions that are associated with mobilization of contaminants. This approach is often organized as a series of discrete samples collected in such a way as to capture the...
Published March 1957. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
As a result of warming temperatures and subsequently declining snowpacks, forest fires are increasing in frequency, intensity and extent across the western USA. In turn, forest fire disturbance affects patterns of snow accumulation and ablation by reducing canopy interception and modifying the snowpack energy balance. Following a 2011, high severity...
