Monitoring of Water Quality Dynamics in Fresno River and Hensley Lake, California*

The Fresno River is located near the geographical center of California and is the first major tributary east of the San Joaquin River. Hensley Lake was created by the construction of Hidden Dam on the Fresno River for flood control, irrigation, resource management, and recreation. The reservoir has a storage capacity of 90,000 acre feet (110 million m3) and a water surface area of about 1,500 acres (6 km2). In recent years, algae blooms appeared in the lake, causing public concerns over continued beneficial uses of Fresno River and Hensley Lake. This monitoring and simulation project was conducted to identify the major nutrient sources and nutrient and algae dynamics in the watershed and reservoir. A GIS-aided BASINS model was set up for basin scale water quality simulation in the future. Historical data analysis and field sampling of physical, chemical and biological parameters of the River and Lake waters indicated that: (1) The annual contribution of river water to the lake has significantly decreased after the year 2000 (reasons to be investigated). This caused a decrease in water storage in the reservoir likely lead to eutrophic and even hypereutrophic conditions in the lake; (2) The dissolved oxygen in the river is at a critical (near minimum) level for potential beneficial uses. Oxygen levels quickly declined with depth in the lake during summer, far below the minimum concentrations for warm water systems as determined by California Water Quality Standards (5.0mg/L). Oxygen deficit is caused not only by not having enough light through surface water but also oxygen consumption by surface algae and their decomposers in the deep water through respiration; (3) Nutrient concentrations in the watershed were always lower than the lake site closest to the river inflow, strongly suggesting that the river water is diluting the lake; and (4) High bacteria (total Coliform and E. Coli) numbers prevailed in the middle and downstream reaches of the river, indicating that disease-causing bacteria may be present in the watershed. * This project was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, administered through the California State Water Resources Control Board.