Understanding water quality is a vital part of management and planning for municipalities, industrial dischargers and private landowners. Government regulations have dictated specific thresholds for individual constituents in both river and lake systems which protect the overall health of aquatic systems. For example, dissolved oxygen concentrations below 4.0 ppm for extended periods of time can result in an impact to the fish community. For this reason, regulating agencies issue NPDES permits requiring dischargers to comply with nutrient loading limitations to prevent dissolved oxygen from decreasing below 4.0 ppm. Permits are issued for nutrients, metals, organics, non-organics, oil and grease as well as many other parameters.
Water Quality Testing
EnviroScience performs a variety of water quality studies to support a diverse array of projects such as site investigations, remedial project design, biocriteria development and use designation determination, and permit issuance. These studies are often completed in conjunction with biological evaluations, watershed analysis and litigation cases. We also perform 316(a) and 316(b) evaluations, and design and conduct TMDL studies. Please visit our links to the left to learn more about these specific services.
EnviroScience has completed many water quality studies to address general water quality as well as site specific issues. Our experience enables us to design a study specific to your circumstances. EnviroScience excels at difficult monitoring situations, and our studies have been designed for projects requiring multiple sample locations, water depths up to 50 feet, and water bodies of all sizes from small streams to the Ohio River and Lake Erie.Typical applications used in water quality evaluations:
- Detailed Analytical Sampling
- Mixing Zone Modelling
- Dissolved Oxygen Profiles
- Trophic State Index (TSI)
Water Quality Sampling
Detailed analytical sampling involves monitoring specific constituents from a discharge and comparing the data to ambient conditions, which are often completed in conjunction with mixing zone studies of individual discharges. Projects are designed to collect analytical data that reveals the exact dispersion and “mixing” of the effluent once it enters the receiving water. These studies often result in less stringent limits for the the permit holders effluent discharge. EnviroScience can also design studies to evaluate other water quality parameters such as nutrient loading, E. coli, turbidity (suspended solids), and metals.
Dissolved oxygen studies most often evaluate lake systems which stratify in the summer months. This stratification results in an anoxic zone (no oxygen) which can be localized to the lake bottom or comprise most of the water column. Anoxic zones can also be created when excessive organic pollution is present. Nuisance algal blooms can occur which can inhibit photosynthesis and create dissolved oxygen depletion. When present, the anoxic zone limits available habitat for fish and microorganisms. Monitoring dissolved oxygen is a method to identify problem areas and determine if supplemental aeration is necessary to promote lake health.
The Trophic State Index (TSI), an internationally recognized and accepted technique for assessing lake productivity and health, was developed by Dr. Robert Carlson of Kent State University, who is also associated with EnviroScience as a consulting scientist. The TSI measures water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll production to calculate a numeric score which indicates a lake’s trophic state (i.e., productivity). TSI values can be compared to lakes in a respective region or anywhere in the country to get an idea of relative health.
Aquatic Ecology Ecological Services Lake Management Permitting
The Latest Field Methods to Assess Fish Populations
Electrofishing and netting
Fish Communities as Bio-indicators
Evaluating fish populations in streams and rivers has been a major component of EnviroScience’s projects since 1994. Our past experience ranges all across the mid-west, as far east as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and as far south as Alabama. We have the capabilities to sample any size water body using electrofishing equipment, seines, hoop nets, trap nets, trawls and gill nets.
Fish communities are an excellent indicator of biological integrity due to their continuous exposure to ambient water conditions, and because they display a variety of responses to environmental disturbance, such as habitat alterations, organic enrichment, chemical toxicity, and thermal fluctuations. Therefore, they are an integral part of any bio-monitoring program.
Silver Redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum)
ES biologists have extensive experience using Ohio EPA’s Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) and Modified Index of Well-Being (MIwb) for the assessment of biological integrity. These protocols have been instrumental in monitoring the reclamation and/or degradation of Ohio’s streams. EnviroScience has also adapted these protocols to the overlapping ecoregions in surrounding states, and uses the federal R.B.P. where needed.
EnviroScience uses the most current methodology to assess fish communities in water bodies ranging from small headwater streams to The Great Lakes, North America’s largest freshwater bodies of water. Most fish collections use pulsed DC electrical currents which temporarily stun the fish to allow for net capture. In captivity, the fish are examined for anomalies, weighed, measured for length, and quickly released unharmed. EnviroScience employs the typical electrofishing methods: backpack, long-line, tote barge, and boat.
Northern Pike (Esox lucius)
Qualitative methods can be used to supplement quantitative fish data. For example, sampling equipment can be employed to target specific species or groups of fishes. This equipment includes experimental gillnets for general species, seines for near shore species, hoopnets for bottom dwelling species, and trawls for pelagic species. Icthyoplankton sampling and identification for entrainment and impingement [316(b)] is an EnviroScience specialty. Other methods such as underwater video and sonar are also available
Data Analysis:
The ES staff has over 70 years of combined experience with fishery data analysis.
- Presence / Absence based on historical and habitat data
- Spawning
- Community Comparisons
- RIS (Representative Important Species)
- IBI (Index of Biotic Integrity) relevant in OH, KY, GA, etc.
- RBP (Rapid Bio assessment Protocol) for federal projects and state-specific (PA, WV)
- Thermal tolerance / analysis
- 316(a) and 316(b) data analysis and consulting
- Index of Well Being (IWB) and Modified Index of Well Being (MIWB)
- Catch Per Unit (CPU)
- Predation and Gut Analysis
Fishery Management
Fishery Evaluations: A Valuable Management Tool
EnviroScience biologists have extensive experience conducting full-scale fishery evaluations from small private ponds to Lake Erie. ES has sampled over 4,000 locations throughout the United States generating an exceptional knowledge base of the biology and ecology of fish communities. Three factors are needed to sustain a viable fishery in any system:
- Habitat- water quality, cover, plants, depth, substrate
- Food- invertebrates, bait fish, plankton
- Reproduction- adult survival, spawning habitat
Hoop-net deployment
An analysis of these factors in combination with abundance and diversity data is an excellent method of assessing the fishery and lake health. Fisheries are sampled using a variety of techniques including electrofishing, hoop netting, seining, gill netting, Global Positioning System technology, and Geographic Information System software. Often times, several methods are used simultaneously to ensure adequate sampling in all habitats. For example, hoop nets target bottom dwelling species sometimes missed by electrofishing.
EnviroScience personnel analyze the data to assess fish population dynamics and health, which are used to develop best management plans for stabilizing or improving the fishery. Recommendations may include stocking and habitat improvement. Our pro-active approach encourages close work and communication with the client, lake association, and other principal stakeholders. Each project is tailored to the specific needs and goals of the lake.
- Fishery evaluation – fish survey followed by a detailed report containing comprehensive data analysis, imagery generation, and management recommendations where applicable
- Nuisance species management – removal of unwanted fish species such as carp, large gizzard shad, etc.
- Fish surveys includes the collection of fish for various purposes such as tissue analysis or consumption advisories.
- Bathymetric surveys using the latest in Global Positioning Systems
- Habitat evaluation and improvement recommendations and design
- Comprehensive water quality sampling and lake diagnostics
- Qualitative and quantitative analysis or zooplankton, phytoplankton, and ichthyoplankton
ES biologist electrofishing
Aquatic Ecology Ecological Services Water Quality Monitoring
By definition, macroinvertebrates are organisms without backbones, which are visible to the eye without the aid of a microscope. Aquatic macroinvertebrates live on, under, and around rocks and sediment on the bottoms of lakes, rivers, and streams. As a result of their habitat choice, macroinvertebrates are often regarded as “benthos” which refers collectively to organisms which live on, in or near the bottom.
Examples of freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates include the immature and adult stages of many different types of invertebrates. A freshwater benthic community may consist of the immature stages of many flies, beetles (adults and immatures), mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, dragonflies, aquatic worms, snails, leeches and numerous other organisms that inhabit the benthos.
Benthic macroinvertebrates, especially aquatic insects, represent a choice group of organisms for use in biological monitoring programs. Macroinvertebrates within the same system may be residents for several months to multiple years, depending on the lifespan of the particular organism. Macroinvertebrate communities therefore reside in an aquatic system long enough to reflect the chronic effects of pollutants, and yet short enough to respond to relatively acute changes in water quality. Unlike fish, these populations tend to be relatively immobile, and as a result are continuously exposed to the constituents of the surface water they inhabit. Thus, because of the limited mobility of macroinvertebrates and their relative inability to move away from adverse conditions, the location of chronic sources of pollution often can be pinpointed by comparing communities of these organisms.
Macroinvertebrates exhibit varying responses to changes in water chemistry, water quality and physical habitat. Each macroinvertebrate’s response to environmental perturbations produces measurable, and often predictable, shifts in abundance and composition at the community level.
Individually, macroinvertebrates can also be used to indicate sublethal effects, such as mouthpart deformities in chironomid midges (aquatic fly larvae). Benthic macroinvertebrates and chironomids in particular, are used as bioindicators for environmental stress in aquatic ecosystems at different levels, including morphological deformities. Deformities of invertebrates are used frequently as ecotoxicological endpoints in cases of legacy environmental issues.
The sensitivity of macroinvertebrates to changes in environmental quality render them an integral part of any biomonitoring program.
EnviroScience biologists use a variety of methods to collect benthic macroinvertebrates from aquatic habitats, including quantitative, semi-quantitative, or qualitative methods, depending on project requirements. These macroinvertebrate data are used individually or in combination with other environmental characteristics (habitat, fish and/or physical and analytical chemistry) to assess the extent or lack of environmental impairment.
Chironomus L to R: deformed middle tooth, normal, asymetrical. Photo courtesy of Brian Duffy.
Aquatic Ecology Ecological Services Water Quality Monitoring
