Big Thompson Watershed Forum

 Monitoring Data and

Information Product Dissemination Policy

9/30/2008

Objective

The Big Thompson Watershed Forum (Forum) serves as an independent fact-finding organization that collects, monitors, and provides scientific information and understanding about water quality and related natural resource conditions in the Big Thompson watershed. Because the value of data is only realized through its appropriate use, the Forum has a continuing responsibility to keep public and private organizations and individuals informed of all of its research results in a practical and cost effective manner.  Developing, maintaining, and distributing monitoring results has an associated cost, but sharing results reduces the cost for all parties.

Distribution Services

Requests for data are fulfilled solely via download from the Forum's website.  Such requests accrue no charge, but the Forum's database is password protected so that we can monitor what and how data are being used.  Periodically, the Forum will transfer its database to a publicly available distribution service, such as STORET or the Colorado Data Sharing Network. Requests for these legacy data will be handled by the data repository's personnel.  The Forum does not analyze or distribute custom data sets, other than the Forum's annual water quality report, for anyone other than its major funders.

Disclaimer

The Forum makes every effort to provide accurate, complete, usable, and timely information.  However, some information may, of necessity, be preliminary in nature and supplied before final review.  Thus, information is provided with the understanding that it is not guaranteed to be correct or complete.  Recipients must carefully consider the provisional nature of this information before using it for decisions that concern personal or public safety or the conduct of business involving substantial monetary or operational consequences.  Conclusions drawn from or actions undertaken on the basis of such information are the sole responsibility of the user.  As such, the data presented on this page represent 'provisional' results.

Correction and Update

We ask that all users of the Forum's information inform the Forum of any errors detected in those products.  However, the Forum has no obligation to inform any Recipients of any changes to the Forum's databases or any previously supplied information.

Information Redistribution

Recipients of the Forum's information products may not sell those products to third parties.  However, value-added products created by the Recipient which incorporate all or part of the information supplied by the Forum, including but not limited to, revisions, translations, expansions, or other significant modifications to the Forum's information products, are not subject to any redistribution limitation.

Data Retrieval

Much of the data presented here will appear in a text format on your web browser.  Before attempting to analyze the information, you will need to properly load it into your database or spreadsheet.  For example, if you open one of these files from within Excel, you will need to tell Excel that the columns are delimited by tabs.  If this procedure is not followed, the data may not be properly aligned in the appropriate columns. If you have any difficulty downloading these files, or cannot find the data you are seeking, please contact Zack Shelley at (970) 613-6163 or zshelley@btwatershed.org. 

A description and geographic coordinates for all flowing water quality sampling sites is located in the 'Sampling Site Codes and Descriptions' link listed below.  Geographic coordinates for reservoir sites have been withheld for security purposes.   The 'Map of Sampling Site Locations' link below provides the locations of many of Forum's sites from 2006-2008. The '3-D Watershed Map' link below illustrates the significant gradient changes in the Big Thompson watershed from the Continental Divide to the confluence with the South Platte River.         

Cooperative Monitoring Program

The Forum’s Cooperative Monitoring Program involves water quality sampling and analysis by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Fort Collins Water Quality Lab and Loveland Water Quality Lab. This is the most credible monitoring program the Forum coordinates due to the sampling and analysis Quality Assurance and Quality Control measures USGS puts in place.    

The Forum’s Cooperative Monitoring Program is designed to meet four objectives:

1. Assess the degree of compliance with existing and anticipated water quality or stream standards
   and classifications and/or screening thresholds for streams and lakes/reservoirs related to the beneficial uses of water in the watershed;

2. Collaborate with the City of Fort Collins and Greeley and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District in assessing the trophic state of Carter Lake and Horsetooth Reservoir;

3. Assess the impact of feeder system source (Big Thompson River and tributaries, Lake Estes, the Dille Tunnel, canals, and groundwater) loadings to Carter Lake and Horsetooth Reservoir;

4. Assess the magnitude and statistical significance of temporal and spatial trends in ambient surface water quality constituents
   for both concentrations and mass loadings at select flowing monitoring sites in the Big Thompson Watershed.

In 2008, water samples will be collected and analyzed from 21 sites within the Big Thompson Watershed, including the Big Thompson River, North Fork of the Big Thompson River, Buckhorn Creek, and canal sites. Over 30 parameters are collected at each site, including nutrients, metals, pathogens and physical parameters. Water quality samples are collected throughout the year from flowing water sites and Horsetooth Reservoir.  In 2008, data from Horsetooth will be collected from the City of Fort Collins and USGS/Northern Water programs).

Data from the Cooperative Monitoring Program are divided into flowing water and Horsetooth Reservoir sites below. 

Volunteer Monitoring Data

The Forum developed a volunteer monitoring program in 1997 to establish baseline water quality conditions throughout the watershed. These sampling locations are volunteer sites developed by the Forum to fill in the gaps of the Cooperative Monitoring Program. Currently, 11 sites are sampled six times a year by volunteers trained by the Forum and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Sample sites are located in the Big Thompson River, the Little Thompson River and Glacier Creek.  EPA Region 8 laboratory in Golden, Colorado, analyzes 25 water quality constituents including nutrients, metals and bacteria in addition to physical parameters measured by the volunteers. 

Small Lakes Focus Group

The Small Lakes Focus Group was developed in 1998 to assess and improve the environmental quality of Silver and Equalizer Lakes and Houts Reservoir, located in Loveland. Through 2007, samples were collected on a bi-monthly basis during the summer and on a monthly basis throughout the rest of the year (as long as the lakes and reservoirs were not frozen).  Chemical and physical data including dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance and secchi depth are located below. Well-Spring Educational Products and Services and Phyto Finder analyzed algal density and biovolume samples and Colorado Watershed Network-River Watch analyzed nutrient samples for this program.   

Forum's Special Projects Monitoring Data

The Forum develops abbreviated monitoring programs to fulfill project needs.  Since these data do not fit into our Cooperative, Volunteer or Small Lakes Focus Group monitoring programs, they are listed here as Special Projects Monitoring Data. 

Mariano Exchange Ditch

The Mariano Exchange Ditch is an Improvement Project that the Forum started collecting data for in 1997.  This ditch, located in Loveland, along the Big Thompson Bike Path, runs during the agriculture season from approximately June through September.  While flowing, this ditch is known to discharge sediment laden water that is higher in temperature and nutrients than its receiving water, the Big Thompson River.  Phase I water quality data collected at multiple locations along the ditch and up and down stream of the confluence with the Big Thompson River are located below.  Phase II is awaiting funding.

Non-Forum Coordinated Data

An objective of the Forum is to provide access to water quality data or data that can be used in conjunction with water quality data to assess the status of the Big Thompson Watershed. In some cases, these data are provided by partners such as the United States Bureau of Reclamation or Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and are not coordinated by the Forum. The following data sets are provided by the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) for the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.    

Daily Average Flow and Stage for the Colorado-Big Thompson Project

The Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project is a trans-mountain water diversion project completed in 1957 that brings water from Grand Lake on the west slope across to the Big Thompson River.  USBR provides a monthly report of the daily average flow and stage of sections the C-BT system.  The Forum subsets these data into sections of the C-BT system that can be correlated to our water quality monitoring programs.  

Each entire monthly report is also provided below. These files contain monitoring sites that are located throughout the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District boundary, including areas within the St. Vrain, Boulder and Poudre watersheds.

Big Thompson Watershed Forum

 Data Assessment and Reporting

The Forum develops project proposals to assess data from each of our monitoring programs. These assessments may be completed by Forum staff, contracted experts or experts that provide their services as an in-kind contribution. Whenever possible, complete, peer-reviewed reports will be provided below.    

Cooperative Monitoring Program

The Forum produced an annual Big Thompson Watershed Water Quality Report in 2003 and 2007. These reports included data from the Cooperative and Volunteer Monitoring Programs and any other data that met the minimum requirements for the reports. The first report, published in 2003, was titled Water Quality of the Upper Big Thompson Watershed and focused only on the upper Big Thompson Watershed, upstream of the mouth of the Big Thompson Canyon.  The second report, published in 2007, was titled Retrospective Analysis of Big Thompson Water Quality, 2001-2006, and focused on the entire Big Thompson Watershed.

Small Lakes Focus Group

Water quality data collected for the Small Lakes Focus Group have been translated into excel graphs below. 

Water quality reports for the High Plains Environmental Center (HPEC) were produced by the Forum after the 2002 and 2006 sampling seasons. These reports summarize the data collected at Houts Reservoir and Equalizer Lake.