Figure 1: Flow Duration Curve for the Mettowee River at the USGS stream gauge in Middle Granville, Vermont (04280450). Orange data points correspond to the 2016 sampling dates. Blue data points correspond to USGS historical data of approved daily mean flow records for water years 1991 to 2016. Figure 2: Flow Duration Curve for the Poultney River at the USGS stream gauge below Fair Haven, Vermont (04280000). Orange data points correspond to the 2016 sampling dates. Blue data points correspond to USGS historical data of approved daily mean flow records for water years 1991 to 2016. Methods Please refer to the PMNRCD 2016 QAPP for sample collection and analysis methods. Information about watershed-specific methods are included below. PMNRCD collects water samples at historic, or sentinel, sites along the mainstem of the Poultney, Castleton, and Mettowee Rivers to monitor trends in bacteria and phosphorus concentrations transported from the landscape and flowing to Lake Champlain. The District determined through past studies and based on clear public input at an April 16, 2015, meeting followed by an April 20, 2015, meeting with farmers and other landowners that the District should collect samples at the mouth of the Poultney River, Mettowee River, the Barge Canal, and directly in South Lake. The District has also determined that sampling from smaller tributaries is beneficial for ‘tracing’ nutrients and bacteria back to their source. Increasingly, samples are collected from smaller watersheds and projects are identified that appear to relate directly to a specific source of the pollutants.
Figure 1: Flow Duration Curve for the Mettowee River at the USGS stream gauge in Middle Granville, Vermont (04280450). Orange data points correspond to the 2016 sampling dates. Blue data points correspond to USGS historical data of approved daily mean flow records for water years 1991 to 2016. Figure 2: Flow Duration Curve for the Poultney River at the USGS stream gauge below Fair Haven, Vermont (04280000). Orange data points correspond to the 2016 sampling dates. Blue data points correspond to USGS historical data of approved daily mean flow records for water years 1991 to 2016. Methods Please refer to the PMNRCD 2016 QAPP for sample collection and analysis methods. Information about watershed-specific methods are included below. PMNRCD collects water samples at historic, or sentinel, sites along the mainstem of the Poultney, Castleton, and Mettowee Rivers to monitor trends in bacteria and phosphorus concentrations transported from the landscape and flowing to Lake Champlain. The District determined through past studies and based on clear public input at an April 16, 2015, meeting followed by an April 20, 2015, meeting with farmers and other landowners that the District should collect samples at the mouth of the Poultney River, Mettowee River, the Barge Canal, and directly in South Lake. The District has also determined that sampling from smaller tributaries is beneficial for ‘tracing’ nutrients and bacteria back to their source. Increasingly, samples are collected from smaller watersheds and projects are identified that appear to relate directly to a specific source of the pollutants.