Start Date: 2008
End Date: 2010
Full Citation:
Westar Energy Center. 2008-2010. $153,000. "Assessment of Westar Energy Jeffrey Energy Center discharge on Lost Creek:
A long–term monitoring/assessment strategy." PI: D. Huggins, Co-PI: D. Baker.
Category:
- Aquatic
Associated with the KU Field Station: No
Research Summary:
CPCB performed physical, chemical, and biological monitoring and assessment of Lost Creek and an unnamed tributary that receives cooling water downstream from the Jeffrey Energy Center (JEC) north of St. Marys, KS, to determine if discharge from the plant affects Lost Creek, and if wet scrubbers which came on-line summer 2009 had an effect on Lost Creek. CPCB monitored three sites (i.e. stream segments) on Lost Creek both above and below its confluence with the unnamed tributary as well as three sites on the tributary itself. Thus a total of nine sites were sampled once during the summer and fall periods of 2008 and 2009. This sampling scheme allows for the general temporal assessment of the biology and chemistry associated with study sites during the summer and fall when minimum flows and high biological activity is expected and thus discharge “affects” might be the highest.
Monitoring activities included habitat assessment, water quality testing, and benthic macroinvertebrate and fish sampling. CPCB also measured a series of in situ parameters and analyzed water samples for chloride and sulfate. To assess the habitat at each site, CPCB used both the Habitat Development Index (HDI, Huggins and Moffet 1988) used by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Ohio EPA’s Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI).
Huggins, D.G. R. Everhart. and A.J. Blackwood. 2010. Final report on the potential effects of Jeffrey Energy Center effluent on the fish community of Lost Creek and unnamed receiving tributary. Open-file Report No. 163. Kansas Biological Survey, Lawrence, KS. 30 pp.
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