Technical Bulletin No. 0843: Long-term Receiving Water Study Data Compendium: August 1998 to September 1999

The NCASI Long-Term Receiving Water Study (LTRWS), a 10- to 20-year project involving four different U.S. receiving waters, was begun in 1998. One of the chief LTRWS objectives is to evaluate possible differences in the aquatic communities upstream/downstream of representative point source effluent discharges from pulp and paper mills. Within this goal are specific objectives which include: 1) identifying the extent of natural temporal and spatial variability of abiotic and biotic properties of the study streams, 2) defining the margin of safety for effluent addition to the streams, 3) identifying changes in receiving water conditions that might arise following possible future changes in mill process or effluent treatment, and 4) providing an early indication of possible subtle effluent effects that might not otherwise be known. In addition, the LTRWS may serve as a study template for others to use in carrying out monitoring in other receiving waters. The experimental design includes multiple sampling sites and variables for each of the receiving waters in the study. The measured components include water and effluent chemistry, characterization of the effluents with chronic bioassays, river temperature and flow, solar radiation, and detailed measurements of the periphyton, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish communities. This report summarizes the data collected during the first year of the study, from August 1998 to September 1999, for the three rivers then included in the study: Codorus Creek, Pennsylvania; the McKenzie River, Oregon; and the Willamette River, Oregon. Similar reports will be issued for each monitoring year of the LTRWS. Additional reports will be issued over the course of the study directed at the interpretation of the data with respect to addressing effluent effects questions identified in the study objectives.