Blackstone River Monitoring and Modeling
The District is funding monitoring and modeling of the
Blackstone River by the University of Massachusetts and CDM, Inc. General results of our monitoring and modeling
efforts through spring, 2011 are discussed in our Project Summary. The study shows that:
·
With the
recent facility upgrades the nutrient load leaving UBWPAD is significantly lower than it was in the
past, and improvements in River water quality are expected.
·
The rate
of river flow is an important factor influencing algal growth.
Increased algal growth tends to occur in stagnant or low flowing
stretches of the river, frequently located behind old industrial era dams,
because the algae have more time to consume the nutrients in the water.
·
Because
of this, the limits included in the 2008 permit will not achieve the water quality targets for algal
growth.
·
In fact,
even complete elimination of nutrients in the UBWPAD discharge will not achieve the targets for
algal growth or nutrients in all reaches of the river.
·
Our efforts show that water quality targets can only be achieved if
all the stagnant
river stretches are eliminated.
·
These
findings strongly indicate that
management of the stagnant river stretches, located primarily behind impoundments, needs to be considered as part of the
solution to improving river quality, and that such practices will achieve water quality
goals without the need for further plant improvements.
If you are interested in more details on the model,
the information is contained in the following reports and appendices. Note that these are lengthy reports and will
take some time to download, their size is shown in the
list below.
Blackstone River Model Reports and Appendices:
·
Calibration
Report, Aug, 2008 33.7
MB
o Calibration
Report Addendum, Oct., 2011 0.6 MB
·
Validation
Report, Oct, 2011 1.7
MB
o
Validation Report
Appendices A-C 19.5
MB
o
Validation Report
Appendices D-F 0.9
MB
o
Validation Report
Appendix G 43.3 MB
o Validation Report
Appendices H-N 29.8
MB