Real Time Streamflow and Water Quality Monitoring Station in the Logan River at the Utah Water Research Laboratory
2004 Research Initiation Award Report
Investigators
Jeff Horsburgh—Research Engineer, Environmental Management Research
Group, Utah Water Research Laboratory, Utah State University
David Stevens—Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah
State University
Summary
Using funding from the USU Water Initiative, we have installed and are currently
operating a real time water quality monitoring station located in the Logan
River just upstream of First Dam. The station consists of a Hydrolab multiprobe
water quality instrument, a turbidity probe, a Campbell Scientific datalogger
and radio, a radio repeater, and a computer base station at the UWRL. The
station has been active since September of 2004, and is currently monitoring
streamflow (provided by the adjacent USGS gage), water temperature, dissolved
oxygen, pH, specific conductance, and turbidity. The data generated by this
station has been fully integrated with the Bear River Watershed Information
System, and are available online at: http://www.bearriverinfo.org/data/usurealtime.aspx. We are providing
maintenance of the site, calibration of the sensors, and supporting the ongoing
inclusion of the data being collected in the real time monitoring section of
the Bear River Watershed Information System. We have leveraged additional funds
from the UWRL to install an additional monitoring site at the UWRL (streamflow,
water temperature, and turbidity) and to purchase and install the turbidity
probe at the existing monitoring site. Also, at least one USU graduate level
course (Surface Water Quality Modeling – CEE 6930) is using the equipment,
sites, and data in class field trips and projects. Work on this project has also
led, in part, to a successful $350,000 proposal to the National Science
Foundation. This new project involves individuals from the Colleges of
Engineering and Natural Resources and entails work in the Little Bear River of
Cache Valley related to managing environmental sensors and observations databases
in the context of hydrologic and environmental observatories.
Contact Information
Jeff Horsburgh
jeff.horsburgh‹at›usu.edu