Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Understanding the Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection for Lake Koocanusa, a Transboundary Reservoir between Montana and British Columbia
This case-study of selenium pollution of Lake Koocanusa from coal mining in the upper Elk and Fording River watersheds relates to an overall goal of linking geologic source selenium dynamics to hydrological, biochemical, and ecological selenium dynamics. This type of approach enables a realistic understanding of the causes of uncertainty (for example, management alternatives for upstream selenium loading from coal mining as integrated with downstream Libby Dam flows) to help ensure that broader-level policy decisions are structured to be operationally protective of an ecosystem’s health during cycles of impairment and restoration.
Specifically, USGS OFR 2020-1098 entitled Understanding and Documenting the Scientific Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection in Support of Site-Specific Guidelines Development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada documents a USGS interagency Federal and State collaboration to compile species-specific and reservoir-specific selenium datasets to inform ecosystem-scale scenario building. We consider OFR 2020-1098 and the accompanying data releases assembled here as a working set of documents that addresses the need for (1) scientific understanding in representing the lake’s ecosystem and selenium biodynamics; and (2) policy and management development during a structured decision-making process. However, our work is open to modification and updating as more ecologically detailed data become available. The approach brings together the main concerns involved in selenium toxicity: likelihood of high exposure, inherent species sensitivity, and close connectivity of ecosystem characteristics and behavioral ecology of predators. Detailed site-specific modeling equations are provided to document the linked factors that determine the responses of ecosystems to selenium. A series of scenarios quantifies the implications of choices of site-specific variables including food-web species, bioavailability of particulate material, and partitioning between the dissolved and particulate phases at the base of food webs. A gradient mapping tool applied to Lake Koocanusa provides a precedent for ecosystem-scale modeling of lakes, as contrasted to stream networks or estuaries, by recognizing the importance of dimensional lake strata and hydrodynamics as components of a modeling methodology.
Specific data requirements for the ecosystem-scale selenium modeling methodology, including ecological and hydrological process information fundamental to the biochemical speciation and dietary biodynamics of selenium in site-specific foodwebs, were assessed as a precursor to model validation for Lake Koocanusa. Understanding these relationships is necessary to connect modeling outcomes to reproductive effects and establish boundaries, in the case of Lake Koocanusa, for the influences of dam operation, fish-community viability, and its Clean Water Act impaired303(d)-listing status based on the water body not fully supporting aquatic life as a beneficial use. Additionally, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality identified Lake Koocanusa as threatened by selenium sources outside the State of Montana’s jurisdictions or borders as part of its listing in 2012.
We find that an assemblage of conditions affects the representation of Lake Koocanusa’s ecosystem within modeling scenarios but that the constructed gradient maps, mechanistic model, and associated bioaccumulation potentials portray and quantify variables that are influential in protecting predator species. Ecological and hydrological sorting of compiled individual data points on a site- and species-specific basis helps identify and address model uncertainties. Sources of uncertainty include (1) the scarcity of data for some environmental media compartments across time and locations; (2) the complexity of hydrodynamic conditions that can lead to seasonal ecological disconnects such as in selenium partitioning from water into particulates; and (3) the functional status of Lake Koocanusa’s ecosystem because of cumulative effects of various environmental stresses (for example, fish-community changes, flow regime changes, parasites, gonadal dysfunction, and increasing mining input-selenium concentrations since 1984). To this last point, it is important to determine where Lake Koocanusa is in an impairment-restoration cycle so as not to base protection on survivor bias, the maintenance of a currently degraded ecosystem, or normalized toxicity. In a broader context, one of the overall consequences of revised selenium regulations is that their derivation is now dependent on being able to define and understand the status of the ecosystem on which protection is based. Our modeling work will evolve in the future as new data become available.
History of OFR 2020-1098
OFR 2020-1098 identifies an objective and goals to work towards as part of consensus building. The overall objective is to document the scientific basis of selenium ecological protection in support of the development of site-specific selenium guidelines for Lake Koocanusa. Both the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (hereafter referred to as “BCMOE”) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (hereafter referred to as “USEPA”) provided guidance concerning recently revised selenium regulations that recognizes the importance of linking the primacy of a fish tissue toxicity guideline with the practicality of a water-column guideline through a site-specific modeled ecosystem methodology (BCMOE, 2014; USEPA,2016). The overall goal is to provide an ecosystem-scale model that illustrates the site-specific range of potential selenium exposure and bioaccumulation that can inform the basis for regulatory decision-making by the State, and the Province. Explicit goals related to modeling as expressed at the conception of this work and embedded in a cooperative funding agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MTDEQ) are as follows:
- consideration of ecologically significant species and those important to stakeholders;
- protection of 100 percent of the fish species in the reservoir assuming a reproductive endpoint from reproductively mature females that are feeding in an ecosystem that functions as a lentic reservoir;
- long-term protection for fish in all parts of the reservoir during all phases of reservoir operation, all selenium loading profiles, and all water years (precipitation/runoff scenarios);
- protection of ecosystems during maximum dietary selenium exposure (that is, feeding within a benthic food web); and
- protection of downstream uses including protection of the endangered Kootenai River Acipenser transmontanus (white sturgeon).
In a separate report, Jenni and others (2017) describe the specified need by MTDEQ and other stakeholders concerning the derivation of site-specific aquatic-life protection for Lake Koocanusa. That need was to model the ecosystem in terms of selenium dietary biodynamics and provide modeling spreadsheets as an interactive way for stakeholders to participate in scenario building within a decision analysis structure. The audience for these works was expected to be somewhat familiar with the environmental setting, regulatory issues, and the transboundary nature of the work. As such, this work cuts across Federal, State and Provincial boundaries and, hence, agency protocols. In this regard, terms such as criterion, standard, and guideline, which are specific to regulatory agencies cited in this report, are collectively referred to here as “guideline.” The fish tissue toxicity guideline used within modeling here to assess protection is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s national selenium guideline for whole-body fish (dry weight); however, other numeric values for a whole-body guideline may be assumed.
Integration of available datasets within modeling for Lake Koocanusa was affected as we attempted to sort through fundamental landscape and ecosystem function alterations known to be caused by Libby Dam itself to establish sensitive locations and timing with which to inform regulatory and management actions. New sampling methods and tools also were implemented during the length of this project in response to ecosystem conditions assessed during our study. For example, collection of SPM (suspended particulate material), as the phase of particulate material most relevant to modeling of the base of food webs, was adapted for an oligotrophic lake setting of as much as 315 feet of depth. Additionally, a gradient mapping tool was formulated and applied to spatially integrate the influence of variables such as hydrodynamics, lake strata (i.e., epilimnion and hypolimnion), and selenium source inputs within the lake. The generated plots (see adjacent figure) illustrate the type of conceptualization and quantification that is possible to support food-web modeling of lake settings in comparison to stream networks or estuarine systems (see specific examples available on this USGS website: Presser, 2013; Presser and Luoma, 2013; Luoma and Presser, 2018). Overall, some tolerance is needed to accept these interim efforts as they are meant, as a way to move forward when encountering unforeseen uncertainty in ecosystem functioning and health.
As part of future monitoring to support ecosystem-scale modeling and constrain uncertainty within regulatory and management actions, the USGS deployed a monitoring platform in August 2019 at the U.S. and Canada border. In addition to standard, hourly limnological profiles that can be viewed in near-real time, filtered water samples can be collected on a daily time step from four depths and preserved for selenium analysis (USGS site 12300110). Similar equipment was deployed within the existing tailwater gaging station below Libby Dam (USGS site 12301933). This station provides (1) coordinated monitoring for a second downstream location of the reservoir; and (2) information on the variability of selenium inputs to the downstream lotic habitats of the Kootenai River. Hence, with the addition of these datasets in the future, the distribution of biochemical speciation and bioavailability of selenium with time and depth during varying hydrodynamic conditions (for example, spring freshet, fall turnover, density driven currents) can inform modeling scenarios.
Related Data and Reports
The following reports and data releases provide in-depth information about our work:
- Open-File Report 2020-1098 (Main Report and Figures): Understanding and Documenting the Scientific Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection in Support of Site-Specific Guidelines Development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada (see description above)
- Open-File Report 2020-1098 [Tables]: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2020/1098/ofr20201098_tables_1_and_3_to_10.xlsx Fish traits, sampling details, and species-specific limiting factor; 2. Excerpts concerning ecotoxicology and fish tissue monitoring or tissue-to-tissue relationships; 3. Dietary percentage of biomass for diet of fish species; 4. Categorization of fish species for modeling; 5. Validation ranges of observed and predicted selenium concentrations in invertebrates; 6.Calculation of bioaccumulation potentials for the insect to fish model; 7. Calculation of bioaccumulation potentials for the trophic fish model; 8. Spreadsheet scenarios and calculations for the insect to fish model using the complete dataset for Kd(USEPA, 2016a); 9. Spreadsheet scenarios and calculations for the trophic fish model using complete dataset for Kd (USEPA,2016a); and 10. Spreadsheet example of comparative scenarios using species-specific trophic transfer factors for fish species (see OFR 2020-1098 main report link above).
- Open-File Report 2020-1098 (Sampling-Site Maps): Understanding and Documenting the Scientific Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection in Support of Site-Specific Guidelines Development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada Figures: 1 and 8-11: Study areas map of Lake Koocanusa showing locations of Libby Dam, the border between Montana and British Columbia, and the Elk River, which discharges selenium from five coal mines in British Columbia into the reservoir; 8. Map showing location of sites where water quality and (or) suspended particulate material samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa, Elk River, and the Kootenai River, Montana, and Kootenay River, British Columbia; 9. Map showing location of sites where zooplankton samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa, Montana and British Columbia; 10. Map showing location of sites where invertebrate samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa, Montana and British Columbia; 11 A-F. Maps showing location of sites where fish samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa.
- Data Release: Selenium concentrations in food webs of Lake Koocanusa in the vicinity of Libby Dam (MT) and the Elk River (BC) as the basis for applying ecosystem-scale modeling, 2008-2018 This Data Release presents multi-agency data for selenium concentrations in ecosystem media that include water column, suspended particulate material, zooplankton, invertebrates, and fish. Spreadsheets are ordered in a food-web format to facilitate modeling that emphasizes spatially and temporally paired data. Selenium concentrations are species-specific for fish and taxa-specific for invertebrates to address required specificity for biodynamic dietary modeling. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, and invertebrate densities or biomass are compiled, in addition to fish catches, to help elucidate productivity and identify which groups, taxa, or species are abundant on a seasonal basis. For water quality context, the historical record of selenium concentrations is given, with emphasis on the primary selenium loading site near where the Elk River enters Lake Koocanusa. Spreadsheets with the term "annex" in their file name address a competing toxin, mercury, for fish. Recent high-frequency monitoring of selenium concentrations at the international border and at a gaging station below Libby Dam provide a perspective on future selenium data availability. Methodologies are described as federal, provincial, and state agencies transition to a consistent set of protocols to ensure consistency in monitoring for locations on both sides of the border. Tables 1-23 are available for individual download or compressed file download.
- Data Release: USGS Measurements of Dissolved and Suspended Particulate Material Selenium in Lake Koocanusa in the Vicinity of Libby Dam (MT), 2015-2016 This Data Release contains 1) a location map; 2) a modeling schematic; 3) collection methods, analytical methods, and quality control information; 4) spreadsheets and graphical displays of selenium data; and 5) hydrological parameters related to sampling conditions at the lake. This Data Release will be updated and modified as additional sampling and analysis takes place.
- Data Release: USGS Measurements of Dissolved and Suspended Particulate Material Selenium in Lake Koocanusa in the Vicinity of Libby Dam (MT), 2015-2017 (update) This Data Release contains 1) a location map; 2) a modeling schematic; 3) collection methods, analytical methods, and quality control information; 4) spreadsheets and graphical displays of selenium data; and 5) hydrological parameters related to sampling conditions at the lake. Also included is an example sampling matrix that illustrates the types of data needed within Lake Koocanusa to support robust ecosystem-scale selenium modeling. For this 2017 update of the Data Release, the same methodologies were followed as in 2016, except sampling occurred over seven consecutive months. This frequency allowed documentation of a more detailed view of the dissolve and particulate selenium dynamics of Lake Koocanusa to help identify trends and connect to other ecological and management variables.
- Open-File Report 2017–1130: Conceptual modeling framework to support development of site-specific selenium criteria for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada USGS working with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy, has developed a conceptual modeling framework that can be used to provide structured and scientifically based input to the Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group as they consider potential site-specific selenium criteria for Lake Koocanusa, a transboundary reservoir located in Montana and British Columbia. This report describes that modeling framework, provides an example of how it can be applied, and outlines possible next steps for implementing the framework.
Links of Interest
- USGS gaging station 12301933: Kootenai River bl Libby Dam near Libby MT
- USGS gaging station 12300110: Lake Koocanusa at international boundary
- USGS Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center: Assessing the Impacts of Mining on the Transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir
- USGS Kootenai River Basin Dissolved Selenium Data
- USGS Transboundary Assessments of Water Quality in the Pacific Northwest
- https://www.ijc.org/en/elk/reference: On March 8, 2024 the Governments of Canada and the United States provided a reference that incorporates a proposal developed in partnership with the Ktunaxa Nation to the International Joint Commission (IJC) to carry out certain actions addressing the impacts of transboundary water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed.
- British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change: Ministerial Order No. M232-2024 directing Amendments to the Existing Teck Elk Valley Area -Based Management Plan
- Elk Valley Water Quality Plan
- Koocanusa Reservoir Food Web Model
- The Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group
Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Local and Global Perspectives
Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Mining
Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Irrigation
Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Refining
Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Modeling
This case-study of selenium pollution of Lake Koocanusa from coal mining in the upper Elk and Fording River watersheds relates to an overall goal of linking geologic source selenium dynamics to hydrological, biochemical, and ecological selenium dynamics. This type of approach enables a realistic understanding of the causes of uncertainty (for example, management alternatives for upstream selenium loading from coal mining as integrated with downstream Libby Dam flows) to help ensure that broader-level policy decisions are structured to be operationally protective of an ecosystem’s health during cycles of impairment and restoration.
Specifically, USGS OFR 2020-1098 entitled Understanding and Documenting the Scientific Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection in Support of Site-Specific Guidelines Development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada documents a USGS interagency Federal and State collaboration to compile species-specific and reservoir-specific selenium datasets to inform ecosystem-scale scenario building. We consider OFR 2020-1098 and the accompanying data releases assembled here as a working set of documents that addresses the need for (1) scientific understanding in representing the lake’s ecosystem and selenium biodynamics; and (2) policy and management development during a structured decision-making process. However, our work is open to modification and updating as more ecologically detailed data become available. The approach brings together the main concerns involved in selenium toxicity: likelihood of high exposure, inherent species sensitivity, and close connectivity of ecosystem characteristics and behavioral ecology of predators. Detailed site-specific modeling equations are provided to document the linked factors that determine the responses of ecosystems to selenium. A series of scenarios quantifies the implications of choices of site-specific variables including food-web species, bioavailability of particulate material, and partitioning between the dissolved and particulate phases at the base of food webs. A gradient mapping tool applied to Lake Koocanusa provides a precedent for ecosystem-scale modeling of lakes, as contrasted to stream networks or estuaries, by recognizing the importance of dimensional lake strata and hydrodynamics as components of a modeling methodology.
Specific data requirements for the ecosystem-scale selenium modeling methodology, including ecological and hydrological process information fundamental to the biochemical speciation and dietary biodynamics of selenium in site-specific foodwebs, were assessed as a precursor to model validation for Lake Koocanusa. Understanding these relationships is necessary to connect modeling outcomes to reproductive effects and establish boundaries, in the case of Lake Koocanusa, for the influences of dam operation, fish-community viability, and its Clean Water Act impaired303(d)-listing status based on the water body not fully supporting aquatic life as a beneficial use. Additionally, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality identified Lake Koocanusa as threatened by selenium sources outside the State of Montana’s jurisdictions or borders as part of its listing in 2012.
We find that an assemblage of conditions affects the representation of Lake Koocanusa’s ecosystem within modeling scenarios but that the constructed gradient maps, mechanistic model, and associated bioaccumulation potentials portray and quantify variables that are influential in protecting predator species. Ecological and hydrological sorting of compiled individual data points on a site- and species-specific basis helps identify and address model uncertainties. Sources of uncertainty include (1) the scarcity of data for some environmental media compartments across time and locations; (2) the complexity of hydrodynamic conditions that can lead to seasonal ecological disconnects such as in selenium partitioning from water into particulates; and (3) the functional status of Lake Koocanusa’s ecosystem because of cumulative effects of various environmental stresses (for example, fish-community changes, flow regime changes, parasites, gonadal dysfunction, and increasing mining input-selenium concentrations since 1984). To this last point, it is important to determine where Lake Koocanusa is in an impairment-restoration cycle so as not to base protection on survivor bias, the maintenance of a currently degraded ecosystem, or normalized toxicity. In a broader context, one of the overall consequences of revised selenium regulations is that their derivation is now dependent on being able to define and understand the status of the ecosystem on which protection is based. Our modeling work will evolve in the future as new data become available.
History of OFR 2020-1098
OFR 2020-1098 identifies an objective and goals to work towards as part of consensus building. The overall objective is to document the scientific basis of selenium ecological protection in support of the development of site-specific selenium guidelines for Lake Koocanusa. Both the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (hereafter referred to as “BCMOE”) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (hereafter referred to as “USEPA”) provided guidance concerning recently revised selenium regulations that recognizes the importance of linking the primacy of a fish tissue toxicity guideline with the practicality of a water-column guideline through a site-specific modeled ecosystem methodology (BCMOE, 2014; USEPA,2016). The overall goal is to provide an ecosystem-scale model that illustrates the site-specific range of potential selenium exposure and bioaccumulation that can inform the basis for regulatory decision-making by the State, and the Province. Explicit goals related to modeling as expressed at the conception of this work and embedded in a cooperative funding agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MTDEQ) are as follows:
- consideration of ecologically significant species and those important to stakeholders;
- protection of 100 percent of the fish species in the reservoir assuming a reproductive endpoint from reproductively mature females that are feeding in an ecosystem that functions as a lentic reservoir;
- long-term protection for fish in all parts of the reservoir during all phases of reservoir operation, all selenium loading profiles, and all water years (precipitation/runoff scenarios);
- protection of ecosystems during maximum dietary selenium exposure (that is, feeding within a benthic food web); and
- protection of downstream uses including protection of the endangered Kootenai River Acipenser transmontanus (white sturgeon).
In a separate report, Jenni and others (2017) describe the specified need by MTDEQ and other stakeholders concerning the derivation of site-specific aquatic-life protection for Lake Koocanusa. That need was to model the ecosystem in terms of selenium dietary biodynamics and provide modeling spreadsheets as an interactive way for stakeholders to participate in scenario building within a decision analysis structure. The audience for these works was expected to be somewhat familiar with the environmental setting, regulatory issues, and the transboundary nature of the work. As such, this work cuts across Federal, State and Provincial boundaries and, hence, agency protocols. In this regard, terms such as criterion, standard, and guideline, which are specific to regulatory agencies cited in this report, are collectively referred to here as “guideline.” The fish tissue toxicity guideline used within modeling here to assess protection is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s national selenium guideline for whole-body fish (dry weight); however, other numeric values for a whole-body guideline may be assumed.
Integration of available datasets within modeling for Lake Koocanusa was affected as we attempted to sort through fundamental landscape and ecosystem function alterations known to be caused by Libby Dam itself to establish sensitive locations and timing with which to inform regulatory and management actions. New sampling methods and tools also were implemented during the length of this project in response to ecosystem conditions assessed during our study. For example, collection of SPM (suspended particulate material), as the phase of particulate material most relevant to modeling of the base of food webs, was adapted for an oligotrophic lake setting of as much as 315 feet of depth. Additionally, a gradient mapping tool was formulated and applied to spatially integrate the influence of variables such as hydrodynamics, lake strata (i.e., epilimnion and hypolimnion), and selenium source inputs within the lake. The generated plots (see adjacent figure) illustrate the type of conceptualization and quantification that is possible to support food-web modeling of lake settings in comparison to stream networks or estuarine systems (see specific examples available on this USGS website: Presser, 2013; Presser and Luoma, 2013; Luoma and Presser, 2018). Overall, some tolerance is needed to accept these interim efforts as they are meant, as a way to move forward when encountering unforeseen uncertainty in ecosystem functioning and health.
As part of future monitoring to support ecosystem-scale modeling and constrain uncertainty within regulatory and management actions, the USGS deployed a monitoring platform in August 2019 at the U.S. and Canada border. In addition to standard, hourly limnological profiles that can be viewed in near-real time, filtered water samples can be collected on a daily time step from four depths and preserved for selenium analysis (USGS site 12300110). Similar equipment was deployed within the existing tailwater gaging station below Libby Dam (USGS site 12301933). This station provides (1) coordinated monitoring for a second downstream location of the reservoir; and (2) information on the variability of selenium inputs to the downstream lotic habitats of the Kootenai River. Hence, with the addition of these datasets in the future, the distribution of biochemical speciation and bioavailability of selenium with time and depth during varying hydrodynamic conditions (for example, spring freshet, fall turnover, density driven currents) can inform modeling scenarios.
Related Data and Reports
The following reports and data releases provide in-depth information about our work:
- Open-File Report 2020-1098 (Main Report and Figures): Understanding and Documenting the Scientific Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection in Support of Site-Specific Guidelines Development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada (see description above)
- Open-File Report 2020-1098 [Tables]: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2020/1098/ofr20201098_tables_1_and_3_to_10.xlsx Fish traits, sampling details, and species-specific limiting factor; 2. Excerpts concerning ecotoxicology and fish tissue monitoring or tissue-to-tissue relationships; 3. Dietary percentage of biomass for diet of fish species; 4. Categorization of fish species for modeling; 5. Validation ranges of observed and predicted selenium concentrations in invertebrates; 6.Calculation of bioaccumulation potentials for the insect to fish model; 7. Calculation of bioaccumulation potentials for the trophic fish model; 8. Spreadsheet scenarios and calculations for the insect to fish model using the complete dataset for Kd(USEPA, 2016a); 9. Spreadsheet scenarios and calculations for the trophic fish model using complete dataset for Kd (USEPA,2016a); and 10. Spreadsheet example of comparative scenarios using species-specific trophic transfer factors for fish species (see OFR 2020-1098 main report link above).
- Open-File Report 2020-1098 (Sampling-Site Maps): Understanding and Documenting the Scientific Basis of Selenium Ecological Protection in Support of Site-Specific Guidelines Development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada Figures: 1 and 8-11: Study areas map of Lake Koocanusa showing locations of Libby Dam, the border between Montana and British Columbia, and the Elk River, which discharges selenium from five coal mines in British Columbia into the reservoir; 8. Map showing location of sites where water quality and (or) suspended particulate material samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa, Elk River, and the Kootenai River, Montana, and Kootenay River, British Columbia; 9. Map showing location of sites where zooplankton samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa, Montana and British Columbia; 10. Map showing location of sites where invertebrate samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa, Montana and British Columbia; 11 A-F. Maps showing location of sites where fish samples were collected from Lake Koocanusa.
- Data Release: Selenium concentrations in food webs of Lake Koocanusa in the vicinity of Libby Dam (MT) and the Elk River (BC) as the basis for applying ecosystem-scale modeling, 2008-2018 This Data Release presents multi-agency data for selenium concentrations in ecosystem media that include water column, suspended particulate material, zooplankton, invertebrates, and fish. Spreadsheets are ordered in a food-web format to facilitate modeling that emphasizes spatially and temporally paired data. Selenium concentrations are species-specific for fish and taxa-specific for invertebrates to address required specificity for biodynamic dietary modeling. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, and invertebrate densities or biomass are compiled, in addition to fish catches, to help elucidate productivity and identify which groups, taxa, or species are abundant on a seasonal basis. For water quality context, the historical record of selenium concentrations is given, with emphasis on the primary selenium loading site near where the Elk River enters Lake Koocanusa. Spreadsheets with the term "annex" in their file name address a competing toxin, mercury, for fish. Recent high-frequency monitoring of selenium concentrations at the international border and at a gaging station below Libby Dam provide a perspective on future selenium data availability. Methodologies are described as federal, provincial, and state agencies transition to a consistent set of protocols to ensure consistency in monitoring for locations on both sides of the border. Tables 1-23 are available for individual download or compressed file download.
- Data Release: USGS Measurements of Dissolved and Suspended Particulate Material Selenium in Lake Koocanusa in the Vicinity of Libby Dam (MT), 2015-2016 This Data Release contains 1) a location map; 2) a modeling schematic; 3) collection methods, analytical methods, and quality control information; 4) spreadsheets and graphical displays of selenium data; and 5) hydrological parameters related to sampling conditions at the lake. This Data Release will be updated and modified as additional sampling and analysis takes place.
- Data Release: USGS Measurements of Dissolved and Suspended Particulate Material Selenium in Lake Koocanusa in the Vicinity of Libby Dam (MT), 2015-2017 (update) This Data Release contains 1) a location map; 2) a modeling schematic; 3) collection methods, analytical methods, and quality control information; 4) spreadsheets and graphical displays of selenium data; and 5) hydrological parameters related to sampling conditions at the lake. Also included is an example sampling matrix that illustrates the types of data needed within Lake Koocanusa to support robust ecosystem-scale selenium modeling. For this 2017 update of the Data Release, the same methodologies were followed as in 2016, except sampling occurred over seven consecutive months. This frequency allowed documentation of a more detailed view of the dissolve and particulate selenium dynamics of Lake Koocanusa to help identify trends and connect to other ecological and management variables.
- Open-File Report 2017–1130: Conceptual modeling framework to support development of site-specific selenium criteria for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada USGS working with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy, has developed a conceptual modeling framework that can be used to provide structured and scientifically based input to the Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group as they consider potential site-specific selenium criteria for Lake Koocanusa, a transboundary reservoir located in Montana and British Columbia. This report describes that modeling framework, provides an example of how it can be applied, and outlines possible next steps for implementing the framework.
Links of Interest
- USGS gaging station 12301933: Kootenai River bl Libby Dam near Libby MT
- USGS gaging station 12300110: Lake Koocanusa at international boundary
- USGS Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center: Assessing the Impacts of Mining on the Transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir
- USGS Kootenai River Basin Dissolved Selenium Data
- USGS Transboundary Assessments of Water Quality in the Pacific Northwest
- https://www.ijc.org/en/elk/reference: On March 8, 2024 the Governments of Canada and the United States provided a reference that incorporates a proposal developed in partnership with the Ktunaxa Nation to the International Joint Commission (IJC) to carry out certain actions addressing the impacts of transboundary water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed.
- British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change: Ministerial Order No. M232-2024 directing Amendments to the Existing Teck Elk Valley Area -Based Management Plan
- Elk Valley Water Quality Plan
- Koocanusa Reservoir Food Web Model
- The Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group