Description:
The Tualatin River Basin is located in the Washington
County, Oregon. The river was detected having high
chlorophyll a concentration and low dissolved oxygen
concentration during summer time, which violated DEQ water
quality standards.
A mathematical model (HSPF) was used to simulate
physical, chemical and biological processes in the basin and
to evaluate the effect of the 'best management practice'
(BMP) strategy on improving water quality of the basin.
Calibration of the model was focused on water
temperature, total suspended solids, dissolved oxygen,
dissolved ammonia, dissolved nitrate, dissolved phosphate,
and chlorophyll a. Comparison against observed data (1990)
showed that the model predictions were accurate for most of
the constituents.
After verification, the model was used to evaluate the
strategy of the Best Management Practice (BMP) on the
agricultural land at Gales Creek basin, a major sub-basin of
the study area. The results showed that the effect of BMP on
nutrients loading from land segment is not significant at
Gales Creek.