RedN NAWQA
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Red River of the North Basin
National Water-Quality Assessment Program
Cowdery, T.K., and Brigham, M.E., 1992, Baseflow Dissolved-Solids
Loads to Streams of the Red River of the North Basin, South Dakota, North
Dakota, and Minnesota: 37th Annual Midwest Ground Water Conference Program
with Abstracts, October 14-16, 1992, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, p. 38.
Abstract
The status, trends, and human and natural factors that affect water quality in the Red River of the North basin are being studied as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment program. During baseflow, water in the Red River of the North and some tributaries has higher dissolved-solids concentrations than during other flow conditions, due to ground-water discharge from deep aquifers through glacial tills and lake clays into streams. To determine dissolved-solids loads to streams from ground water, basin wide stream samples were collected during baseflow in March and December 1991. March samples were collected under ice during a period of extremely low flow (exceeded 95 percent of the time in the last 50 years) when only one of the North Dakota tributaries was discharging more than 5 cubic feet per second. Hydrogen and oxygen isotope values indicate that river water was partly derived from melting ice or snow and partly from deeper aquifers. December discharge and dissolved-solids data indicate that three small tributaries in northeastern North Dakota contributed 30 percent of the dissolved-solids load but only 5 percent of the streamflow in the Red River of the North at Emerson, Manitoba. Results from each sampling show that nearly all of the dissolved-solids load to the Red River of the North is conveyed through its tributaries during baseflow conditions. Based on these reconnaissance surveys, the basin will be divided into sub-units for future water-quality assessment.
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey