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LIBERTY CREEK MONITORING

Liberty Creek is the main tributary to Liberty Lake, where it drains approximately 10 square miles of mountainous watershed area above the lake (Montgomery Consulting, 1990). The County Park encompasses approximately 3500 acres of this mountainous watershed. Through most of its  length, the creek is a swift stream of very cold, high quality, nutrient poor water, and generally exceeds Washington State Water Quality Standards for Class AA ("extraordinary") waters in all physical and chemical characteristics (Water Quality Criteria, Washington State Department of Ecology, 1982).

At the south end of the lake is a seasonal 155-acre marsh and wetlands. In 1934, the Bureau of Reclamation constructed a bifurcation in Liberty Creek to assist and divert stream flow around the marsh and to stop annual flooding of the marsh from runoff. In conjunction with the bifurcation, the Bureau also constructed a marsh-lake dike to assist in draining and improving the marshland for agricultural and animal farming activities. Later in 1950, channel modifications were conducted in which the stream flowed in a manmade diked channel along the east edge of the marsh. In 1977, a diversion structure was installed on the creek at the bifurcation, and channel improvements and dike construction followed in 1979 (Kennedy, 1986).

In the aerial photograph below you can see Liberty Lake and the 155 acre marsh to its south. If you look closely, you can see both the east and west channels of Liberty Creek (bordering the timber on each side of the marsh and naturally highlighted by the riparian vegetation). The bifurcation of Liberty Creek is off the photograph, but slightly more upstream (south) past the small road crossing at the head-end of the marsh.

Click to enlarge the photo

A 6 inch PVC stilling well has been installed on Liberty Creek above the bifurcation and channel modifications. The purpose for the installation of this site is to monitor the continuous flow of Liberty Creek into the marsh and lake. This stilling well will offer real time data valuable for calculating discharge, plotting the stream hydrograph, and pin pointing runoff and storm events critical for nutrient sampling and loading. Ongoing monitoring will ensure quality data useful in calculating hydrologic and nutrient budgets while maintaining and establishing baselines and trends. A rating curve has been established for discharge at the site with 98.9% confidence.

Below is the link to Liberty Creek's radio modem and stilling well data:

Liberty Creek Telemetry Station

For more information visit libertylakemonitoring or contact BiJay Adams