Spokane River Research Articles

Chemical and physical characteristics of a eutrophic reservoir and its tributaries: Long Lake, Washington—II

Sampling of Long Lake, Washington and its tributaries was continued for additional information to facilitate a reliable understanding of the dynamics that account for the reservoir's eutrophic condition. The sewage effluent from the City of Spokane's primary treatment plant, via the Spokane River, is a major source of nutrients influencing the reservoir's trophic status. Existing loads of nitrogen and phosphate in the river increased in 1973 by 3.86 and 2.36 metric tons day −1, respectively, below the effluent. Of the influent phosphate, 32% was retained in the reservoir. The Spokane River occurred as a density interflow in the reservoir from mid-July to mid-September and effectively isolated a wedge of anoxic, nutrient laden and low conductive water between the dam and 24 km up-reservoir. The river, as an underflow, initiated fall homothermy. The reservoir had a mean retention time of 49 days and effected greater hypolimnetric oxygen depletion and nutrient accumulation than the previous year.

Trees as environmental sensors monitoring long-term heavy metal contamination of Spokane River, Idaho

Trees as environmental sensors monitoring long-term heavy metal contamination of Spokane River, Idaho

Chemical and physical characteristics of a eutrophic reservoir and its tributaries: Long Lake, Washington

Surveillance on the Spokane River and its tributaries has shown that a major source of nutrients influencing the eutrophication of Long Lake was the effluent of the Spokane primary sewage treatment plant. Existing concentrations of nitrate nitrogen and orthophosphate increased threefold and tenfold, respectively, below the effluent. Of the influent phosphate phosphorus, 19 per cent was retained in the reservoir. A density current system was evident in Long Lake which altered vertical and longitudinal distribution of physical and chemical parameters. This current isolated a wedge of water on the reservoir bottom which became anaerobic. During the period of anaerobiosis, phosphate phosphorus and nitrogen maxima were present in the hypolimnion.

VARIATIONS IN ELEMENTAL CONCENTRATIONS IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER1

The seasonal changes in concentration of several elements in the Columbia River at Hanford, Washington, were measured during 1962. An annual spring increase in the concentration of arsenic, manganese, copper, and lanthanum was related to the introduction of water from the Spokane River to the Columbia River system, while other elemental concentration changes were ascribed to the relative contribution of the Pend Oreille and Spokane rivers to the Columbia River. Data are presented on the concentration of several elements at various points on the Columbia River upstream from the Hanford project.

Stratified Drift and Deglaciation of Eastern Washington

GENERAL SETTING Eastern Washington includes two dissimilar regions—a northern highland area and a southern plateau area. The northern highland consists of high, north-south mountain ranges, separated by broad, and rather straight north-south valleys, sculptured dominantly in crystalline rocks. The range tops rise from about 3000 feet, at the southern end, to more than 7000 feet in places at the northern end, whereas the profiles of the present major streams descend, from 1500 to 2000 feet, in the north and east, to 800 to 1000 feet, in the south and west. The highland is limited abruptly southward by the Columbia Plateau, whose basalt flows abut against, and lap over on, the highland. No drainage now passes from the highland across the plateau surface, for the contact of basalt and crystalline rock is followed closely by the west-flowing Spokane River and its continuation in the west-flowing Columbia, to which all drainage . . .

The Effect of Miocene Lavas on the Course of Columbia River in Central Washington

Earlier work has indicated that between the Spokane River and Wenatchee the plateau-marginal course of the Columbia River was determined by northerly and northwesterly advancing flows of lava. In entering the Columbia Plateau at Wenatchee, the river is shown to have been influenced by floods of lava from the west.

Land Utilization in the Scablands of Eastern Washington

D TV ECIDED contrasts in land utilization occur on the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington between the Palouse and the channeled Scablands that interlace in a mystifying manner across the plateau. The area discussed lies within the Big Bend of the Columbia River east to Idaho, south of the Spokane River and north of the Snake River. The bedrock consists of thick basaltic lava flows with a few island hills of crystalline rock, called steptoes by Russell in his Geology and Water Resources of Nez Perce after Steptoe Butte, rising above the lava. Lake beds, called the Ellensburg formation, were deposited on the surface of the lava plateau in the western part of the Columbia Basin. Both the basalt and the lake beds are pervious, and surface streams are, therefore, relatively scarce. A mature topography was developed by the Pleistocene period on the plateau in Washington. Little residual soil was formed from the bedrock. The surface soil was largely of loessial origin and had been heaped into hills, elongated southwest to northeast, by the wind, according to J. Harlen Bretz. During the glacial period a tremendous flood that resulted from the very rapid melting of an ice sheet, poured down across the plateau, which slopes towards the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. This flood devastated the country. It was in places hundreds of feet deep. Divides were overtopped, and vast anastomosing streams washed away the surface soil in their beds and, by plucking out the basalt, excavated numerous deep basins, many of which now form lakes. The bare basalt is locally called scabrock. The intermingled channels formed by flood erosion are called Large bars were deposited by the flood, and the Quincy Basin, in southern Grant County, was largely buried under sand and gravel. The area of the scablands is about 2,800 square miles, with 900 square miles additional buried in debris left by the flood. Figure 1 illustrates the anastomosed character of the scablands. The scablands include numerous smaller channels within the main canyons, pits, buttes, elongated lake basins, mesas, steep cliffs, dry waterfalls, hanging valleys, islands of the original less covered mature relief, isolated columns, and other erosional forms. The erosional and depositional forms are wholly the work of running water. The giant streams are extinct, but the evidence of the flood remains. Before the flood the area was covered with deep, fertile less; after the flood the lower land affected by the catastrophe was barren scabrock, pitted by numerous basins containing ponds and lakes, and covered by debris in many places forming bars and other deposits. Since the epochal formation of the

Description of a new species of Uranidea (Uranidea rhothea) from Spokane River, Washington Territory

Description of a new species of Uranidea (Uranidea rhothea) from Spokane River, Washington Territory