agency lake treatment wetland design proposal (2014)

Agency Lake Treatment Wetland Design Proposal

CIV/ENV 489/469

Winter 2014

Prepared by: Team BaNG

Taylor Balakrishnan

Miranda Barrus

Taylor Bars

Raefield Benson

Joshua Henry

Kenneth Shultz

Submitted March 14, 2014

CE/ENV 489/469 Team BaNG Proposal

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BACKGROUND The prospective site for the wetland advocated for in this proposal, Agency Lake Ranch,

is approximately 35 miles from the nearest town, Klamath Falls (Google 2014).

According to the Census Bureau, the combined communities of Klamath Falls and

Altamont have an approximate population of 40,000 persons. The larger geographic

setting, the Klamath Basin, is considered climatically to be high desert. See Figure 1, a

location map, below.

Figure 1: Land Use Map (USGS 2014)


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Currently, Agency Lake Ranch is zoned as an Agriculture and Recreation area (Klamath).

There are three properties directly adjacent to Agency Lake: Barnes Ranch to the North

and West of the property, Upper Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge to the South

and West of the property, and the Wood River Wetland to the North and East of the

property (USGS). With the exception of Barnes Ranch, which is zoned as agricultural

land (Klamath), all of the adjacent properties are currently being used for Restoration and

Habitat (USGS). Barnes Ranch is privately owned, the US Department of Fish and

Wildlife owns the Wildlife Sanctuary, and the US Bureau of Reclamation owns the Wood

River Wetland (Klamath). The property is also adjacent to Agency Lake, with the lake

bordering the East side of the property (Google 2014).

Upon visual inspection, the current vegetation breakdown is estimated as follows: 5% -

15% emergent vegetation, 85% to 95% meadow lands (Google 2014). The emergent

vegetation has not been directly observed, but it is assumed to be present within the

irrigation ditches on the property. While there should be not a limiting land uses on the

Agency Ranch Property itself, the adjacent three wetlands, the Upper Klamath Lake

National Wildlife Refuge, the Wood River Wetland, and the Williamson River Delta

Wetland, are sensitive for wildlife and water quality requirements. As such, preserving

the quality of these nearby water bodies, as well as Agency Lake itself, may limit what

can be done on the Agency Lake Ranch Property.

The predicted water sources for this prospective wetland are the sevenmile canal and

groundwater influx; the predicted outlet is into Agency Lake. Locally, the major

endangered species that will be driving the water rights and outlet concentrations of

nutrients will be the Lost River and Short Nose Sucker Fish (Nature Conservancy 2014).

Based on adjacent property usage (Upper Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge and

Wood River Wetland), some possible positive benefits from developing the site may

include improved fish and avian habitat, improved water quality, and recreational use.

PROJECT SCOPE The proposal prepared by the members of team BaNG will discuss a possible land use

option for the Agency Lake Ranch site currently owned by the Bureau of Reclamation.

This option is a hybrid between the “Blow and Go” scenario (blow out the levies holding

back the surrounding waters, BG for short) and a “Store and Grow” scenario (maintain

the levies in place and pump water into and out of the wetland, SG for short) for creating

a wetland on the property, with a focus on the Blow and Go methodology. As team

BaNG is supposed to be focusing on the “Blow and Go” approach for creating a wetland,

any analysis on the portions containing a “Store and Grow” type treatment wetland will

be conceptual only.

The main focus of this report will be to determine what kind of wetland vegetation

(submergent or emergent) is likely to colonize in the newly inundated grassland within

the “Blow and Go” portion of the project site. The main indicator for what kind of

wetland plants will colonize in Agency Lake Ranch will be elevation relative to lake

levels, as found from LIDAR data. The locations of the breaches in the levees and the

inlet pumps from sevenmile canal will be determined so as to maximize retention time.


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Water balance values will be based on existing water rights for the water bodies, as well

as direct scaling of values such as Evapotranspiration and Groundwater Influx. The type

of wetland being considered in this report will be a Free Water Surface (FWS); no

attempts will be made to force the wetland to assume other types of flow characteristics,

as the group believes that this would be contrary to the spirit behind a “Blow and Go”

project.

No direct numerical analysis will be performed on the portion(s) of the property that will

remain contained by levees will be done. The only parameters that will be reported about

these wetland cells are as follows: locations within the parcel, justification for chosen

location, intended function, and conceptual design.

This report is a preliminary study only; the numbers that will be used and generated by

this report will be approximate only. No detailed modeling will be done to determine the

actual flow paths or retention times within the wetland. Likewise, any data used to

determine the value of nutrient or metal uptake/detention within the prospective wetland

will be based on previous data from adjacent projects; no pilot wetlands will be created to

determine actual performance on site. The purpose of this report is to assess the viability

of a predominantly “Blow and Go” wetland creation scenario; design specifics are

beyond the scope of this proposal.

GEOLOGY The soil on the project site is classified by the United States Department of Agriculture

(USDA) as a Lather Muck (Web Soil Survey 2014). According to Dr. Matthew Sleep,

associate professor at the Oregon Institute of Technology, Lather Muck is very similar to

a peat soil. This implies that the soil is very high in organic matter, and will benefit our

wetland, because it will help with the establishment of vegetation. Also, this soil is

currently compacted more than it ever has been. Therefore, even though there is evident

subsidence from the drainage and grazing that occurred on this land, there was no further

compaction that needs to be addressed. Lather muck is not a very permeable soil; thus, it

could restrict the infiltration and exfiltration between the water in our wetland and the

ground water.

CLIMATE The following section covers the regional climate description, the receiving water

hydrograph, a general water budget, and a summary of the pollutant loading for Agency

Lake Ranch.

Regional Climate Description The climate of the Upper Klamath Lake region is designated to both Climate Division 5

and Climate Division 7. These divisions have been defined by the National Climatic Data

Center. Climate Division 5 encompasses high plateau climates. Klamath County is

rimmed by large and small scale mountain ranges, and its high plateau climate is

represented by high elevations, high altitude, and snowfall. Given the combination of the

Cascade mountain range located to the west of the basin and air patterns, the region is


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home to higher wind speeds and drier air. Precipitation for the area is not entirely

comparable to that of the more mountainous regions that surround it (Taylor, 2000).

The following statement was borrowed from section 1.3.2 Climate of the “Upper

Klamath Lake Drainage Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Water Quality

Management Plan (WQMP)”:

The mean annual precipitation for the Upper Klamath Lake subbasin is 27 inches.

The mean annual precipitation is 23 inches in the Williamson River subbasin

upstream from the confluence with the Sprague River and 20 inches in the

Sprague River subbasin. Mean annual snow accumulation ranges from 15 inches

in the valleys to more than 160 inches in the mountainous areas of the basin.

Snowfall represents 30 percent of the annual precipitation in the valleys and more

than 50 percent of the total at higher elevations.

This document was developed in May of 2002 by a team from the Oregon Department of

Environmental Quality. Recognizing that the data was observed over 10 years ago,

precipitation patterns may have changed within the decade. This is true for the last couple

of years, especially the most recent, which produced minimal precipitation.

With more than a hundred miles between the west coast and Klamath Falls, combined

with the region’s high elevation, cold temperatures are generated on any given month

throughout the year (Taylor 2000). Although this scenario is likely, it is not as common

as the dry, hot summers separate from the wet, freezing winter season. Additionally, the

storms passing through the region travel southeast from the northern part of the Pacific

Ocean (Boyd 2002).

Climate Division 7 is classified as South Central Oregon, which is defined as the mixture

of high prairie and mountain range climates. This division covers a large area of the state

and includes land that is used for agriculture. Agriculture uses encompass harvesting

crops and raising livestock. Specific to Klamath County, much of what is harvested or

raised are beef cattle, sheep, dairy herds, horses, pigs, potatoes, various hay crops, mint,

wheat, oats, barley and onions. As a result, the area is heavily irrigated (Taylor 2000).

Agency Lake Ranch, the project site, has been utilized for agricultural purposes,

primarily as cattle pasture. This plays heavily into the pollutant loading for the proposed

wetland, which is detailed later in this report. Receiving Waters’ Hydrograph The proposed wetland project site is located at Agency Lake Ranch, and the wetland’s

receiving water body is Agency Lake to its east. Provided below in Figure 2 is the

hydrograph for Agency Lake that illustrates the lake’s depth over time. Note that the

graph was produced by USGS and is current to date, but the period of record is only 10

months. The gage is located at the southeast end of the lake, which is 1.4 miles upstream

from the outlet and 2.5 miles northwest of Main Street Bridge in Klamath Falls (USGS

2014).


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Figure 2: Upper Klamath Lake Hydrograph from 5/1/2013 to present

According to the general blow-n-go wetland scenerio, existing levees are removed

allowing external water sources to fill the site.Agency Lake is the essential water supply

for the proposed wetland location. As reported by ArcGIS LIDAR data, Agency Lake

Ranch is currently at an average elevation of 4139ft, and can be shown in Figure 3 on the

following page. This land subsidence is caused by a number of factors, but is primarily a

result of livestock grazing the pasture through decades of ranching.


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Figure 3: Elevation of Agency Lake Ranch running parallel to Sevenmile Creek

It is safe to assume that the land will be inundated by Agency Lake fromlevee removal

during the tail end of the winter through the spring season. The depth of water within the

wetland will mainly be dictated by lake levels, subject to seasonal changes, and can vary

from less than a foot to three feet. Water depth of the wetland will also be affected by

climatic factors, so it was necessary to develop a water budget that could be considered in

design.

Generalized Water Budget

Agency Lake Ranch secures many water inputs as well as outputs, but the general water

balance is composed of precipitation, snowmelt, surface water inflow, groundwater

fluctuations, evaporation, and evapotranspiration. A water budget was developed using

actual data from the region, and resulted in a change of depth per one acre. Table 1

on the following page summarizes the data.

4136.00

4138.00

4140.00

4142.00

4144.00

4146.00

4148.00

4150.00

0.00 2000.00 4000.00 6000.00 8000.00 10000.00 12000.00

Ele

va

tio

n (

ft)

Distance Along Sevenmile Creek (ft)

Agency Lake Ranch Elevation Parallel to

Sevenmile Creek


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Table 1: General water budget for Agency Lake Ranch

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Inputs (in)

Precip (in) 2.02 1.42 1.37 1.15 1.12 0.67 0.38 0.34 0.55 0.83 1.75 2.58

SM (in) 8.1 4.2 2.2 0.2 0.1 0 0 0 0 0.3 3.2 13.4

SW (in) 6.15 5.55 6.15 5.95 6.15 5.95 6.15 6.15 5.95 6.15 5.95 6.15

GW (in) 5.36 3.31 4.28 3.12 1.95 2.31 1.29 1.11 2.16 1.75 1.87 1.90

Outputs (in)

Evap (in) 0.44 0.83 1.77 2.98 4.55 5.54 6.45 5.93 3.97 2.75 0.00 0.42

ET (in) 0.071 0.134 0.272 0.408 0.64 0.809 0.927 0.765 0.528 0.291 0.114 0.063

Change in Storage (in)

21.11 13.52 11.95 7.03 4.14 2.59 0.44 0.90 4.16 5.99 12.66 23.54

Change in Storage (ft)

1.76 1.13 1.00 0.59 0.34 0.22 0.04 0.07 0.35 0.50 1.06 1.96

Precipitation and snowmelt data were provided by the National Climatic Data Center

(NCDC), and are a summary of monthly normals from 1981 to 2010. The primary source

of surface water inflow is Sevenmile Creek, directly north of the proposed wetland. A

portion of the Wood River further north is diverged into Sevenmile before it reaches

Agency Lake Ranch, but flow data only reflects Sevenmile. It was collected from the

Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) who has an inactive gage located near

Fort Klamath. Although the gage is inactive, it is the most recent data available, and

Figure 4 on the following page shows that monthly flows are generally consistent. Water

rights played a significant role in the water budget, and how much flow was actually

allowed. OWRD allows Agency Lake Ranch to use approximately 0.0125cfs.

Figure 4: Sevenmile Creek flows from 1993 to 1999

Groundwater contributions are challenging to estimate, because they can either be

inflows or outflows depending on the season. Fortunately, data was available by Andy

Hamilton’s research on the Wood River Wetland for the Bureau of Land Management. In


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using Andy’s data, groundwater activity at the Wood River Wetland was assumed to

reflect similar activity at Agency Lake Ranch. Groundwater activity was recorded daily

between 2006 and 2011, approximately.

Regarding outputs, evaporation data used for the water budget was pan evaporation

values collected by the Western Regional Climate Center from 1949 to 2004. The values

were converted to lake evaporation using the general equation from Gupta’s third edition

of Hydrology and Hydraulic Systems. Furthermore, these evaporation values were

factored to reflect 90% of the wetland having an open-water surface. The remaining 10%

was designated to the evapotranspiration data, which was provided by the Bureau of

Reclamation. The period of record was from 1999 to 2010. Ten percent

evapotranspiration assumes that approximately 10% of the Agency Lake Ranch wetland

will be occupied by vegetation.

Current Pollutant Loads Summary

In order to design for pollutant treatment goals, it is necessary to have a sound

understanding of what pollutants are entering the treatment wetland zone, and per state

regulations, what levels are allowed to be deposited into the receiving water body. As

previously mentioned, Agency Lake Ranch is the proposed site for a treatment wetland,

which collects water from both Wood River and Sevenmile Creek, and the outflow is

delivered to Agency Lake. There is a pollutant load associated with these water sources,

but is not comparable to the existing pollutants in the soil of Agency Lake Ranch and the

water column of Agency Lake.

According to the Upper Klamath Lake Drainage TMDL and WQMP, total phosphorus in

Upper Klamath Lake is the pollutant source that violates water quality standards for pH,

DO, and chlorophyll-a. On average annually from 1992 to 1999, “internal phosphorus

loading was approximately 61% of the total loading to the lake, while external loading

comprised 39% of the total phosphorus sources, with each having a standard deviation of

9%” (Boyd 2002). This data was gathered for a water quality monitoring program by the

Klamath Tribes, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Geological Survey (Walker

2001). The external loads accounted for precipitation, agricultural sources, the

Williamson River, and other tributaries in addition to Wood River and Sevenmile Creek

(Kann and Walker 2001).

In addition to the pollutant load of Agency Lake, the standing pollutant load of Agency

Lake Ranch is critical for design considerations, because these pollutants may be released

into the wetland when it is inundated by Agency Lake. A similar approach to the

groundwater contributions was made toward the standing pollutant load: data was derived

from Andy Hamilton’s research. His information provided the existing pollutants in the

Wood River Wetland soil column from 2007 to 20011. The data was converted to a per

acre unit so that it could be applied to the Agency Lake Ranch soil column. Table 2 on

the following page provides the pollutants and their loads.


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Table 2: Standing pollutants in Agency Lake Ranch soil column

Average Monthly Standing Pollutants in Agency Lake Ranch

(kg/acre) 2007-2011

Jan Feb

Ma

r

Ap

r

Ma

y Jun Jul

Au

g

Se

p

Oc

t

No

v Dec

TKN 141 175 219 195 149

13

1

10

5 63 49 45 69 100

TN 144 176 221 195 150

13

1

10

5 63 49 46 72 104

Ammonia 10 9 14 10 11 10 8 3 3 6 7 10

Nitrate+Nitrite 3 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 4

Total P 26 34 45 38 36 23 16 6 5 4 6 12

Ortho P 17 25 33 30 29 18 12 4 3 2 3 6

Water quality standards with respect to pollutant loading in Oregon water bodies are set

by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). “These regulations include

the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 and its amendments Title 40 Code of Federal

Regulations 131, and Oregon’s Administrative Rules (OAR Chapter 340) and Oregon’s

Revised Statutes (ORS Chapter 468).” Each state is required to develop a Total

Maximum Daily Load, which is the maximum pollutant load that can be released into the

receiving water body without exceeding the state’s water quality standards (Boyd, 2002).

According to Oregon Administrative rules, Oregon water quality standards for pH, DO

and Chlorophyll-a are as follows:

pH:

OAR 340-41-962(2)(d): pH (hydrogen ion concentration) values shall not fall

outside the ranges identified in paragraphs (A) and (B) of this subsection. The

following exception applies: Waters impounded by dams existing on January 1,

1996, which have pHs that exceed the criteria shall not be considered in violation

of the standard if the Department determines that the exceedance would not occur

without the impoundment and that all practicable measures have been taken to

bring the pH in the impounded waters into compliance with the criteria: (A)

Freshwaters except Cascade lakes: pH values shall not fall outside the range of

6.5 – 9.0. When greater than 25 percent of ambient measurements taken between

June and September are greater than pH 8.7, and as resources are available

according to priorities set by the Department, the Department shall determine

whether the values higher than 8.7.

DO:

OAR 340-41-962 (2)(E): For water bodies identified by the Department as

providing cool-water aquatic life, the dissolved oxygen shall not be less than 6.5

mg/l as an absolute minimum. At the discretion of the Department, when the

Department determines that adequate information exists, the dissolved oxygen

shall not fall below 6.5 mg/l as a 30-day mean minimum, 5.0 mg/l as a seven-day

minimum mean, and shall not fall below 4.0 mg/l as an absolute minimum.


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Chlorophyll-a: OAR 340-041-150: The following values and implementation program shall be

applied to lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and streams, except for ponds and reservoirs

less than ten acres in surface area, marshes and saline lakes: (2) (b) Nuisance

Phytoplankton Growth: Natural lakes that do not stratify, reservoirs, rivers and

estuaries: 0.015 mg/L.

It is ideal that our wetland would be used to treat existing pollutants, like total

phosphorus, in order to regulate pH, DO, and Chloraphyll-a. Total phosphorus in

particular is a challenging pollutant to treat is it can only be taken up by vegetation.

Unfortunately, a “Blow and Go” type wetland has minimal vegetation, because it is

primarily a deep open-water surface. This hinders vegetation from establishing, therefore

pollutants may not be treated to what is desired.

HABITAT AND BIOLOGY

The following section covers the habitat and biology in the Upper Klamath Basin,

including sensitive, threatened and endangered species, wetland effects on wildlife,

wetland vegetation, and habitat restoration concepts.

Wetland Habitat of Sensitive, Threatened, or Endangered Species Currently the Upper Klamath Basin is critical habitat for endangered to sensitive species.

These include: Lost River and Shortnose Sucker, Klamath Lake Bull Trout and Redband

Trout.

Aquatic Habitat in the Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries are used different times of

the year for various life stages of endangered Lost River and Shortnose suckers. These

suckers belong to part of lake suckers that are large, long-lived, and long-maturing. They

spend most of their life in lake systems when not spawning, very few remain river

residents. Larvae suckers live only a short time within tributaries. Once in the lake they

rely heavily on near-shore areas, including emergent wetlands and non-vegetated areas as

they mature (Stillwater Sciences 2013).

Sub-adult and adult suckers need water depths of 3 feet or deeper, then move back up the

tributaries to spawn, and some even spawn in gravel substrates at the shoreline springs

along the Upper Klamath Lake (Stillwater Sciences 2013). They seek out emergent

wetland vegetation for habitat, which helps against predation, heavy currents and

turbulence, and is a large source of food for the suckers.

Bull Trout are a native to Upper Klamath Lake- they were listed in 1998 by USFWS as

threatened within the Klamath Basin. Current distribution of bull trout is only a fraction

of the historical presence of the species in the basin. Decline in habitat, isolation, loss of

migratory corridors, poor water quality, and introduction of non-native species has

disrupted most populations to extinction, Sevenmile is one of the now extinct areas for

bull trout.


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Redband Trout are distinct to Jenny Creek (above a waterfall), upper Williamson and

upper Sprague rivers. A separate species from the salmon family, they have their own

distinct characteristics from other trout. They are a separated subspecies, isolated from all

other trout by physical isolation of their basins thousands of years ago. They spend most

of their life in the lake in fall, winter, and spring. In summer they travel back up the

tributaries and springs to avoid bad water quality. Effects on Wetland Wildlife Habitat

One goal of designing a FWS wetland with the Blow and Go scenario on the Agency

Lake project site should be to reduce N and P loading, while improving wildlife habitat.

Kadlec and Wallace explain that the amount of N and P processed by wetland are not

much higher than what microbes and algae would consume (2009). The amount of

nutrient loading in a wetland system is quantified by the concentration of TP (µg/L) and

NH4 –N (mg/L). These rating are listed in the Table 3 below.

Table 3: Nutrient Level Delineations (Kadlec, 2009)

Nutrient status TP NH4-N

Poor < 20 µg/L 0.2 mg/L

Moderate < 200 µg/L < 1.0 mg/L

Rich ~ 1.0 mg/L ~ 5.0 mg/L

Very rich < 5.0 mg/L < 10.0 mg/L

Ideally, for a wetland design to be effective, sufficient biomass should be available for

total nutrient uptake so that more nutrients are consumed by vegetation in the wetland

itself instead of the phytoplankton in the adjacent Agency Lake.

Ray, Hamilton, and Aquino demonstrated that the tissue nutrient concentrations and

nutrient ratios can provide information about the availability and enrichment of N and P

for a given wetland (2012). The significance of this demonstration may be useful in

identifying which nutrient, if any that is limiting productivity in the wetland. This

information may be important to where a wetland is unproductive in vegetative stands

and results in a poor habitat for fish and wildlife.

Wetlands may not only have ecological benefits for improving water quality, but may

also provide habitat for endangered fish species. It is generally understood that sucker

fish species in the Upper Klamath Lake are either in decline or have a small recruitment

rate of juveniles into adult population. Researchers believe that the lack of recruitment

can be credited to many factors. Some of the factors could include: poor water quality,

predation, disease, and loss of habitat from wetland drainage.

Studies have shown that wetland restoration may be positive impacts to habitat recovery

for the endangered fish. One study suggests that wetlands may serve as refuge for

fisheries from predatory fish. Lauren and Colin Chapman suggest that the structural

complexity wetlands, and low oxygen conditions may reduce predation (1996).


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Wetland Vegetation

Emergent vegetation in the Upper Klamath Lake typically consists of Tule, hard-

stemmed bulrush, and cattail. Each takes up nutrients incorporated into the plant roots,

forming peat soils below. Each year previous year’s growth dies back and replaced by

new growth, retaining carbon and other nutrients. This is the major cycle for building

organic soils within the wetland. A great comparison to what Agency Ranch should have

in terms of vegetation is the success of obligate wetland vegetation growth at Wood River

Wetland.

Wood River Wetland Vegetation Similarly to Agency Ranch, Wood River Wetland once was a grazing pasture for cattle.

Typical drainage of the wetland removed organic wetland peat soils, which has led to

land subsidence and loss of mineral and nutrient content in soil cores (Carpenter 2009).

The plant community was once full of grazing resistant, edge, and upland plants and now

has been transformed into typical obligate wetland vegetation (Carpenter 2009).

Vegetation includes willow thickets and obligate wetland species like cattail, giant bur-

reed, and spikerush. New high nutrient loads enhance growth of many species, including

submergent vegetation like coontail, Canadian waterweed, and curly pondweed

(Carpenter 2009). Green algae blooms occur in the open water areas, along with

duckweed, and shallow ponds in summer (Carpenter 2009). The wetland fringe however

creates abundant food for bird life like diving beetles and zooplankton. Zooplankton also

becomes a food source for Lost River and Shortnose suckers.

Habitat Restoration Concepts Habitat improvement is almost equal to water treatment in the design of our project.

Improved shoreline wetland and vegetation would create habitat for fish, more so Lost

River and Shortnose sucker. Improved habitat will lead to overall better water quality as

demonstrated in the Wood River Wetland. They were able to increase habitat function

with water quality to double the capabilities of the wetland. We would like to see

something similar duplicated at Agency Ranch.

A design consideration may be a more sloped wetland. Levee removal and filling in

canals by dredged material which would lower costs off-site material removal and add

more variability and better vegetation diversity. According to Stillwater Sciences, water

treatment efficiency in wetlands typically occurs at 2-2.5ft water depth, which can

support dense growth of emergent aquatic vegetation like cattail and bulrush. They can

work double-duty to fulfill both water treatment and habitat improvement for shortnose

and Lost River sucker, given that suckers need certain water depths and vegetation cover

for survival through their lifespan.

RECOMMENDED TREATMENT WETLAND DESIGN

Our group was given the “Blow and Go” scenario for the wetland rehabilitation of Agency

Lake Ranch. We realized that a purely “Blow and Go” scenario would be severely

shortsighted and would not produce a natural wetland environment. This is due to the

fact that the water column would be too deep for emergent vegetation to be able to take


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root. The group came to the consensus that implemented a mixture of both “Blow-and-

Go” and “Store-and Grow.” See Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: Overall Design

There were three major cells to be renovated, and a unique solution was proposed for

each of the three cells:

1. Northeast cell: This is the most complex of the three cells. Before we began

designing this cell we found that this cell slopes slightly downhill from North to

South using LIDAR data that was provided by Dr. Hughes.


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The North-most portion of this cell is a reservoir that would be filled with the

allotted water from Sevenmile Creek in compliance with the water rights set by

the Oregon Water Resources Department. The function of the reservoir is to store

water during the spring when it is plentiful, and then be able to transfer that water

to our wetlands when needed. The extents of the reservoir is shown below. The

edges of the reservoir will be shallow (shown by tan line in figure below) to allow

emergent vegetation to grow.

A “Store-and-Grow” wetland will be implemented South of the reservoir. Water

will be drawn from two different spots on the levee, the northeast head gate is

already in place so we would only have to install one head gate. The water drawn

from the lake will be fed by gravity and built of water head, and it will be

distributed by the minor gates that will be placed along the levees to ensure the

desired water level is achieved throughout cell. This water that is treated within

these cells will then be discharged back into the lake. See Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Northeast Cell Design

2. Southwest cell: The proposed restoration plan for this property is to strategically

place head gates in the south and west levees in order to control the flow of water


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into the cell. The plan also plan to lower the levees within the cell in order to

allow water to spill over, but make sure that they remain high enough to allow

emergent vegetation to take root. The hope is that this cell will eventually regain

some of the elevation that was lost due to subsidence, and that it will eventually

take on the characteristics of the surrounding wetlands. The tentative locations of

the head gates are shown in the figure below. If there happens to be a shortage of

water in a given summer, this design will allow for the movement water from our

reservoir in the northeast cell down to this cell when needed. See Figure 6 below.

Figure 6: Southwest Cell Design

3. Southeast cell: This cell will incorporate the “Blow-and-Go” scenario. Charges

will be set the specified locations (shown in the figure below), and then we will

allow the water to fill the cell until it reaches equilibrium with the current lake

level. This will cause a large influx of chemicals into the lake due to the fact that

this cell used to be used for agricultural purposes. The plan to help mitigate the

large influx of chemical is to discharge treated water from the “Store-and-Grow”

wetlands just to the North into the northwest corner of this cell. See Figure 7 on

the following page.


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Figure 7: Southeast Cell Design

The purpose of the design was to restore wildlife habitat for not only the endangered

suckers, but also for the numerous other species that benefit from wetlands in the

Klamath Basin. Additionally, we wanted to improve the quality of water by treating it in

the “Store-and-Grow” cells being implemented in the Northeast cell. This helps both the

water quality for the fish and wildlife, and works towards meeting water quality

standards.


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SOURCES

Boyd, Matthew, Brian Kasper, Steve Kirk and Mike Wiltsey. 2002. Upper Klamath Lake

Drainage Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Water Quality Management

Plan (WQMP). State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Accessed

February 2014.

Carpenter, K.D., Snyder, D.T., Duff, J.H., Triska, F.J., Lee, K.K., Avanzino, R.J., and

Sobieszczyk, Steven. 2009. Hydrologic and water-quality conditions during

restoration of the Wood River Wetland, upper Klamath River basin, Oregon.

2003–05: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5004, 66

p. (Available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5004)

Census Bureau, United States. 2014. State and County Quick Facts. http://quickfacts.

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