Willamette River Water Temperature Investigation

In 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began an investigation of water temperature issues in the Willamette River Basin, with a focus on water temperature in the North Santiam and Santiam Rivers. This effort included the development of a flow and temperature model of those rivers, starting at Big Cliff Dam and ending at the mouth of the Santiam River where it joins the Willamette River. This work was performed in an effort to better understand, quantify, and model those processes that determine stream temperature.

The project was part of a larger effort in support of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's task of producing a water temperature Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Willamette River and its largest tributaries, as required by the Federal Clean Water Act. As part of this project, USGS personnel:

• Collected bathymetric data for the main stem Willamette River, from river mile (RM) 28 to RM 175,
• Conducted dye tracer studies in the Willamette and Long Tom Rivers to better understand time-of-travel and dispersion in those systems,
• Measured the surface width of Fall Creek and the Clackamas, Santiam, North Santiam, South Santiam, McKenzie, South Fork McKenzie, Blue, Middle Fork Willamette, Coast Fork Willamette, and Row Rivers at a total of 129 sites under several different flow conditions,
• Constructed, calibrated, and tested a flow and water temperature model of the North Santiam and Santiam Rivers, and
• Participated on the Willamette Basin Model Coordination Team, along with members from Portland State University, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ), and others, to provide technical guidance and feedback to ODEQ as part of the temperature TMDL process.

The North Santiam and Santiam River model has been completed and documented in a USGS report, which can be downloaded from this web site as soon as it becomes available:

Sullivan, A.B. and Rounds, S.A., 2004, Modeling streamflow and water temperature in the North Santiam and Santiam Rivers, Oregon: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5001.
[Available online at http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/sir20045001]

Results, Reports, Models, and Data

Project overview

A discussion of temperature issues and project objectives
 

Main-stem Willamette River bathymetric survey

Documentation of methods, and links to data
 

Dye studies

Travel-time investigations on the Willamette and Long Tom Rivers in 2002
 

Tributary width survey

Documentation of methods, and links to data
 

North Santiam and Santiam River model

A description of the model, as well as links to the data used by the model and the model itself
 

Questions? Comments? For more information about this project, contact:

Stewart Rounds
U.S. Geological Survey
2130 SW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR 97201
503-251-3280
sarounds@usgs.gov

Oregon Water Science Center Home page
Oregon Water Science Center Hydrologic Studies page

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey URL: https://or.water.usgs.gov/projs_dir/will_tmdl/index.html Maintainer: Oregon Webteam Last modified Wednesday - Dec 21, 2016 at 18:57:12 EST Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices