Monitoring in the West Fork of the White River

Project timeline

June 2014 to Present

Purpose

The Beaver Watershed Alliance is focused on the current 303(d) listing of impairement of the West Fork of the White River in northwest Arkansas. The West Fork is impaired because of high turbidity caused by excessive sediments from soil and streambank erosion in the watershed. The AWRC began this project with the Alliance in 2014 to better understand how water-quality changes from the upstream headwaters of the West Fork to the larger downstream sections of the river.

Objective

The Center is collecting water samples at 9 sites along the West Fork from Winslow to Fayetteville. Samples are collected 18 times each year during baseflow conditions and analyzed for turbidity and nutrients.

Goal

Preliminary data suggest that most of the river meets the water quality standard for turbidity, while only a portion of the river exceeds the standard. The goal of this project is to provide the scientific data that could be used to delist the upstream portion of the river that meets the standard.

Benefits

A lot of money is spent on restoration projects that address water quality impairements. This project can identify actual problem areas so that money and resources can be better targeted to address high turbidity levels.

Additional Resources

University of Arkansas Research Frontiers article: Tracking Turbidity in the West Fork.