Spatiotemporal Variability in Total Dissolved Solids and Total Suspended Solids along the Colorado River

Abstract

The Colorado River is a principal source of water for 40 million people and farmlands in seven states in the western US and the Republic of Mexico. The river has been under intense pressure from the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities associated with population growth leading to elevated total dissolved solid (TDS) and total suspended solid (TSS) concentrations. Elevated TDS- and TSS-related issues in the basin have a direct negative impact on the water usage and the ecological health of aquatic organisms. This study, therefore, analyzed the spatiotemporal variability in the TDS and TSS concentrations along the river. Results from our analysis show that TDS concentration was significantly higher in the Upper Colorado River Basin while the Lower Colorado River Basin shows a generally high level of TSSs. We found that the activities in these two basins are distinctive and may be a factor in these variations. Results from the Kruskal–Wallis significance test show there are statistically significant differences in TDSs and TSSs from month to month, season to season, and year to year. These significant variations are largely due to seasonal rises in consumptive use, agriculture practices, snowmelts runoffs, and evaporate rates exacerbated by increased temperature in the summer months. The findings from this study will aid in understanding the river’s water quality, detecting the sources and hotspots of pollutions to the river, and guiding legislative actions. The knowledge obtained forms a strong basis for management and conservation efforts and consequently helps to reduce the economic damage caused by these water quality parameters including the over USD 300 million associated with TDS damages.

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Key Water Quality Parameters in a Thermal Stratified Lake Ecosystem: The Case Study of Lake Mead

“…Waterbodies such as Lake Mead continually face stress resulting from the effects of development, urbanization, and contamination caused by nutrient pollution, drought, and changes in land use and land cover, which results in negative impacts, including the proliferation of toxic blue-green algae, turbidity, eutrophication, and dissolved solids, among others, which impacts the sustainability of the water resources [12,[23][24][25][26][27]. To monitor and protect the quality of stressed water resources, there is a need to effectively characterize the water quality parameters (WQPs).…”

“…TDS is composed of organic and inorganic substances in water [27,[33][34][35], consisting of metalloids, metals, or infinitesimal ions such as Ca 2+ , Na + , Mg 2+ , and Cl − , which pose issues in drinking and wastewater systems, owing to the fact they are usually removed through the mechanical methods of treatment [36]. Causes of elevated TDS in water are categorized as natural (i.e., flood, evaporation, and storm surge) and poor management practices (i.e., excess use of fertilizers) [37].…”

“…Additionally, the river basin that houses the lake is known to be a repository of naturally occurring and abundant salts that were deposited during prehistoric marine conditions. Salts containing sedimentary rocks are easily erodible, dissolved, and transported into the basin river system [27,40]. An estimated 8 billion kg are said to be transported past the Hoover Dam below Lake Mead annually [40,41].…”

A Machine Learning Approach for the Estimation of Total Dissolved Solids Concentration in Lake Mead Using Electrical Conductivity and Temperature

“…Some of these anthropogenic are unintended consequences that need to be minimized [8]. TDS-related economic damages to the CRB are estimated to be over USD 300 million per year, destroying millions of acres of irrigated lands [2,3,[9][10][11][12].…”

“…TDS is a known physical WQP [3,13,14], categorized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) in its secondary drinking water regulations (SDWRs) with an allowable limit in drinking water set to 500 mg/L [3,12,15]. These SDWRs are described as nonenforceable federal guidelines that cause cosmetic and aesthetic effects.…”