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PHOSPHORUS REDUCTION IN THE UPPER CLARK FORK RIVER
Impact/Purpose:
This project seeks to identify and assess other point sources of phosphorus in the upper watershed, and assist the Tri-State Water Quality Council (TSWQC) to find ways to further reduce phosphorus levels in the river. Although a Voluntary Nutrient Reduction Program was agreed to in 1998 with participation of the principal municipal wastewater treatment plants, it appears that achieving the phosphorus reduction goals of this agreement in the Upper Clark Fork will be quite difficult.
The Upper Clark Fork River in western Montana is impaired by nutrient enrichment, metals, siltation, dewatering, and riparian degradation due to agriculture, mill tailings, urban and industrial wastewater runoff. It is on Montana's "high priority" waterbody list for TMDL development. It is also one of the only streams in western Montana to be severely affected by municipal wastewater and urban stormwater runoff, much of which originates in Silver Bow Creek, a principal tributary, which runs through Butte, Montana.
Description:
(1) Quantify point-source phosphorus discharge from urban stormwater runoff and from various industrial wastewater and runoff sources into Silver Bow Creek; (2) Quantify the point-source phosphorus discharge from mine adits or other sources in Warm Springs-Phosphate, Brock, Dunkleberg, and Gold Creeks; and (3) Implement one year of summer monitoring of phosphorus, nitrogen, and periphyton in the Clark Fork River in concert with synoptic tributary surveys.