EcoKai conducted field parameter monitoring and water quality field sampling in support of SCE’s relicensing effort for the Bishop Creek Hydroelectric Project Water Quality Study. SCE operates the Hydroelectric Project under a 30-year license issues by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which is due to expire in 2024. As part of the relicensing process, SCE was directed to develop and implement a Water Quality Study in the Project area.
The Project included several monitoring and sampling locations along Bishop Creek, Lake Sabrina, and South Lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. The study consisted of two years of field monitoring over multiple field trips throughout the summer and fall of 2020 and 2021. The purpose of the Project was to establish baseline water quality conditions of the natural watershed and assess if water quality changes throughout and downstream of various Project facilities. Various stream and lake parameters were measured during each trip including dissolved oxygen, pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, and turbidity. In addition, hundreds of water quality samples were collected over the two-year study and analyzed for various constituents including chemical and bacteriological. Data collection standards and protocols were closely followed to ensure data were highly accurate and consistent and water quality samples were not contaminated. Data sets were carefully compiled for all sites during multiple data collection visits each year. Detailed dissolved oxygen and water temperature depth profiles were also developed for the South Lake and Lake Sabrina monitoring sites to identify the development of anoxic zones and lake stratification.