Hydrocarbons in the Kenai River

During the summer of 2004, KWF completed the most intensive hydrocarbon monitoring of the Kenai River to date. Our goal was to look at the estuary portion of the river and better document how much fuel is in this stretch of the river and what affect the tide has on the levels we have been reporting over the past five years. Over a very busy weekend, we collected one sample every three hours from the middle of the river near the Kenai City Dock, Warren Ames Bridge and Cunningham Park. The 48 samples we collected should give us a better understanding of how fuel from the in river fishing moves downstream and how much the lower river dipnet fishing contributes to the pollution load. Since we conducted this on a Saturday and Sunday, it will also give us the first insights into any differences we see on days with guided fishing boats compared to non-guided boats. This is a never ending controversial topic, and one that KWF can now put some real numbers on. There are no real surprises, by anyone’s measure, there is a great deal of gas that goes into the river and gets flushed out to Cook Inlet.

"Non-Point Source Pollution Monitoring - Hydrocarbons Fact Sheet"

Baseline Water Quality Monitoring

In April 2005, KWF completed its 5th year of baseline sampling of the Kenai River Watershed. Every April and again in each July since 2000, water samples have been collected at 21 sites from Cooper Landing to Cook Inlet.

Our plan has been successfully carried out by having numerous agencies dividing up the workload to cover a big watershed. Six sampling teams each collects a sample from 2 to 4 sites, depending how hard they are to access. This strategy covers all 21 index sites in a single day. Each water sample is then evaluated at a 30% discount by Analytica Laboratory in Anchorage. Our coordination and multiple agency participation have combined to create a data set to use as a starting point for assessing the health of the Kenai River by looking at the concentrations of metals, nutrients, hydrocarbons, and bacteria. We will continue this monitoring effort as long as funding is available to do this important work.

We’d like to thank our many partners in this project: Brad Olson, and his team from Analytica Group Testing Lab, City of Soldotna, Kenai River Sportfishing Association, Inc., Kenaitze Indian Tribe, U.S. Forest Service, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, Alaska Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. Many others behind the scenes are invaluable. No agency or non-profit has the ability to do this alone so we Thank You!

Flow Monitoring

The Greek philosopher ~Heraclitus (c.535 - 475 BC) said "You cannot step into the same river twice". This eloquently states why we monitor the amount of water flowing in key streams, at any give spot on any given stream, the water is constantly changing as it flows toward the ocean. Water quality is different when on the rise during a flood compared to when it is receding and very different between peak runoff times and dry periods. We cannot say very much about water quality without understanding water flow.

Different streams exhibit vastly different flow patterns on the Kenai Peninsula, largely dependent on the presence or absence of glacial melt. How fish respond to changing flow is poorly understood, and we seek to more clearly understand this. In addition to how much it rains or how much and how fast the snow or ice melts, some of the factors controlling stream flow include characteristics of the watershed such as : percentage and type of wetlands, how much pavement ( or other hard surfaces that shed 100% of rainwater), forest type, and topography. Water runoff behavior in Alaska is significantly less understood than in the other States; however, many decisions important to fish and other aquatic life are based on the best available information - it is our goal to make an important contribution to better understanding the water flow characteristics of smaller streams that are the nurseries of juvenile salmon.

Continuous Water Quality Monitoring of the Kenai River

If you went dipnetting this summer, you probably noticed our new yellow buoy. We have upgraded one of our instruments that monitors water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity and pH every 15 minutes round the clock. The data is then transmitted to a satellite via phone modem, then sent to our office via Email. We are now working to get this data published on the internet in near realtime.