Water-quality data for the Ohio River from Willow Island Dam to Belleville Dam, West Virginia and Ohio, June-November 1992

Abstract

This report contains water-quality data for the Ohio River from river mile 160.6 (1.1 mi upstream from Willow Island Dam) to river mile 203.6 (0.3 mi upstream from Belleville Dam) that were collected during the summer and fall of 1992. The data were collected to establish the water quality of the Ohio River and to use in assessing the proposed effects of hydropower development on the water quality of the Ohio River. Water quality was determined by a combination of synoptic field measurements, laboratory analyses, and continuous-record monitoring. Waterquality characteristics were measured in the field along a longitudinal transect with 24 mid-channel sampling sites; cross-sectional transects of water-quality measurements were made at 6 cf these sites. Water quality also was measured at six sites located on the back-channel (West Virginia) sides of Marietta, Muskingum, and Blennerhassett Islands. Water temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, and specific conductance were measured at three depths (about 3.3 feet below the surface of the water, middle of the water column, and near the bottom of the river) at each longitudinal-transect and back-channel sampling site. Cross-sectional transects consisted of three or four detailed vertical profiles of the same characteristics. Water samples were collected at three depths in the mid-channel vertical profile in each cross-sectional transect and were analyzed for concentrations of phytoplankton chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. Estimates of the depth of light penetration (Secchi disk transparency) were made at phytoplankton-pigment-sampling locations whenever light and river-surface conditions were appropriate. Each synoptic sampling event was completed in 2 days or less.