Watershed Nutrient and Contaminant Loading: Water-quality model for Lake Greenwood and the larger watershed

Consortium partners Dr. Hank McKellar and Dr. Jim Bullak, from the SC Department of Natural Resources, are pulling together more than 2 years of research and data samples in order to develop a water quality model for Lake Greenwood. The purpose of the model will be to help planners predict implications of alternate management plans for water quality protection and formulate long-term plans for water quality enhancement and aquatic habitat protection throughout the lake.

The basic conceptual scope of this modeling effort (Fig. 1, above) is to link information on inputs from the larger watershed (point-source discharges and nonpoint source runoff) to ecological/water quality patterns and interactions within the lake. This project has been conducted in three linked phases. Phase 1 included intensive field sampling to quantify in-lake water quality dynamics (phosphorus cycling, algal productivity, oxygen dynamics) over two seasonal cycles (2004-2005). Phase 2, now underway, is combining these data with other ongoing studies (watershed loading dynamics, bottom sediment interactions) to develop and calibrate a dynamic water quality model of Lake Greenwood. The scientists are currently using a state-of-the-art, reservoir-modeling platform (CE-QUAL-W2) to simulate in-lake processes as they respond to input hydrology and nutrient loading. The model will be able to predict temporal and spatial changes in water quality and relate these patterns to nutrient loading and habitat quality in the lake.

The next phase of model development will be to expand the scope of the modeling effort to the entire watershed in order to understand lake-watershed interactions. This linked model will help examine issues of point-source effluent regulation and nonpoint source runoff from changing land uses. Once fully developed in the summer of 2007, the model will help quantify interactions among watershed changes, nutrient loading and habitat quality in Lake Greenwood.

For more information about this and other on-going watershed research projects, click here.