COMPARISON OF WATER QUALITY OF TWO PARALLEL WATERSHEDS IN THE ADIRONDACKS OF NEW YORK STATE

Approximately 43% of the Adirondack Park is classified as wilderness or wild forest area. These areas are interspersed with privately owned lands (50%), generally of low intensity development. This provides an ideal opportunity to assess the impact of various anthropogenic activities on surface water quality. In this study, two watersheds that originate in wilderness areas are studied. As these streams leave forested areas, one passes through an agricultural zone, followed by a golf course, with the other stream simply passing on the other side of the same golf course before they merge in the Village of Malone. Water samples were collected at points along the stream where a land use transition occurred, and from a pond on the golf course. Water was analyzed for major cations and anions, nitrate and total phosphorus. Stream water was found to have relatively consistent concentrations of Ca and SO₄ in the range of 8.0 to 16.1 and 3.1 to 8.0 mg/L, respectively. Sodium and Cl concentrations were highly variable within the watershed and temporally. With the watershed that contains the agricultural area, concentrations are typically higher ranging from 6.7 to 15.3 and 12.3 to 33.1 mg/L, respectively. Temporally, there is a trend of decreasing concentrations with time, suggesting a road salt source. Phosphorus concentrations are suggestive of natural or minimally impacted levels with a few notable exceptions. Concentrations were found to range from below detection limit (0.005 mg/L) to 0.19 mg/L with most samples (74%) at 0.1 mg/L or less. The notable exception is one sample from an upstream area with total P at 0.72 mg/L. Nitrate concentrations were found to show slight anthropogenic influence with concentrations ranging from 0.9 to 3.7 mg/L, and showing a trend of increasing values moving downstream. Overall, the parallel watersheds show a slightly increased influence of human activity on water quality.