Water quality monitoring for Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site: 2019 data report

The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) began monitoring water quality in the Knife River at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site (KNRI) in 2013, with the assistance of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This report summarizes the data collected during the 2019 ice-free season (April 18 through October 31) for streamflow, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, and pH. This was the third season of continuous monitoring. 2019 began as moderately dry year until discharge on the Knife River peaked at 1,900 cubic feet per second in September following unusually heavy precipitation. There was considerable seasonal variation in all water quality measures. A summary of our results can be found in Descriptive Statistics Summary tables for the ice-free season (Table 2) and for each month (Table 3). Notably, water temperature exceeded state standards (Table 1) in summer months although these exceedances made up less than 1% of all records. Additionally, dissolved oxygen was observed below state standards twice on the same day in June, but Knife River still met the dissolved oxygen standard due to the brief nature of this deficiency. NGPN’s collaboration with USGS supported real-time and archived access to this data through the USGS National Water Information System Website KNIFE RIVER NR STANTON, ND - USGS Water Data for the Nation, where it remains available to the public