Memorandum

1^st Meeting of the Total Dissolved Gas (TDG) Monitoring

Sub-Committee

Teleconference Minutes of September 18^th 1998 @10:00 am

Chair: Andrea Ryan, Vancouver, B.C.

*Attending teleconference:*
Jack Gakstatter	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	Portland, Oregon	gakstatter.jack@ epamail.epa.gov
Bolyvong Tanovan	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers	Portland, Oregon	bolyvong.s.tanovan@ usace.army.mil
Mary Todd Uhlir	U.S Army Corps of Engineers	Portland, Oregon	mary.todd.uhlir@ usace.army.mil
Keith Binkley	Seattle City Light	Seattle, Washington	keith.binkley@ ci.seattle.wa.us
Faith Ruffing	Environmental Consultant	Portland, Oregon	fruffing@gte.net
Jean Parodi	Washington State Department of Ecology	Spokane, Washington	jpar461@ ecy.wa.gov
Tom Miller	U.S Army Corps of Engineers	Walla Walla, Washington	thomas.d.miller@ nww01.usace.army.mil
Bill Duncan	Cominco Ltd.	Trail, British Columbia	bduncan@ trail.cominco.com
Cynthia Powell	B.C. Hydro	Vancouver, British Columbia	cpowell@ bchydro.bc.ca
Beverly McNaughton	Department of the Environment	Vancouver, British Columbia	beverly.mcnaughton@ ec.gc.ca
Beverley Raymond	Department of the Environment	Vancouver, British Columbia	beverley.raymond@ ec.gc.ca
Andrea Ryan	Department of the Environment	Vancouver, British Columbia	andrea.ryan@ ec.gc.ca
*Absent from teleconference*
Julia Beatty Spence	British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks	Nelson, British Columbia	jbeatty@ nelson.env.gov.bc.ca
Gary Ash	R.L. & L. Environmental Services Ltd.	Edmonton, Alberta	gash@rll.ca

Agenda Item 1: Introductions

Jack Gakstatter

Þ USEPA, Portland, Oregon

Þ water quality field

Þ involved with international monitoring and border monitoring stations

Þ interested in sharing information and having a system wide grasp of total dissolved gas levels

Tom Miller

Þ USACE, Walla Walla, Washington

Þ working in the Snake River Basin/McNary Dam

Þ works with Bolyvong Tanovan - TDG Monitoring Program and Joe Carroll -Dissolved Gas Abatement Program

Þ involved in equipment and instrument development for dissolved gas monitoring

Þ interested in TDG programs at other structures

Bolyvong Tanovan

Þ USACE, Portland, Oregon

Þ involved with monitoring dissolved gas and temperature since 1983

Þ coordinates activities with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the mid-C PUD's..

Þ uses TDG real-time information for planning studies and reservoir operations scheduling.

Þ interested in sharing this monitoring information with other agencies and groups to promote the control and management of TDG

Bill Duncan

Þ Cominco Ltd. in Trail, B.C.

Þ involved with the TDG monitoring program at the Waneta Dam on the Pend d’Oreille

Þ proposal to upgrade dam to divert more water through turbines which would also reduce TDG levels

Þ upgrade is being reviewed through the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans approval process

Mary Todd Uhlir

Þ USACE, Portland, Oregon.

Þ works with Bolyvong Tanovan in TDG monitoring

Þ 40 TDG monitoring stations located on the Snake and Columbia Rivers

Þ final TDG and temperature datasets for analyses

Cynthia Powell

Þ fisheries biologist with BC Hydro in Vancouver

Þ involved with total dissolved gas and a fish behaviour study being conducted on the Columbia River

Þ BC Hydro has in the past monitored above and below most of the BC hydro facilities on the Columbia; currently monitoring TDG levels above and below Hugh Keenleyside Dam

Keith Binkley

Þ Seattle City Light, Seattle Washington

Þ involved with the Boundary Dam on the Pend Oreille River

Þ interested in how dissolved gas relates to the whole upper Columbia management

Þ in the process of installing pernament monitoring stations on the Pend d’Oreille (canadian portion) downstream of the Boundary dam.

Bev McNaughton

Þ federal Department of the Environment

Þ involved with long-term environmental monitoring networks in British Columbia/Yukon Territory

Þ responsible for international monitoring (Boundary Waters Treaty)

Þ in the process of deploying TDG monitoring equipment at Birchbank and d/s of Boundary Dam

Faith Ruffing

Þ environmental consultant

Þ worked with USACE since 1995 in the Portland District

Þ focused on TDG monitoring at 10 sites

Þ contract with USACE ended January 1998, but have continued to be involved in TDG issues

Bev Raymond

Þ federal Department of the Environment

Þ co-chairing the Transboundary Dissolved Gas Group with Mark Schneider (NOAA)

Þ CRIEMP member

Þ completed a summary of the Columbia River TDG monitoring activities

Jean Parodi

Þ Department of Ecology, Spokane, Washington

Þ involved with water quality monitoring

Þ licensing of non-federal dams must meet water quality standards - Box Canyon Dam and the Boundary Dam will be submitting a water license application

Þ knows of a colleague with Idaho Environmental Quality involved with water quality certification who would like to join this monitoring subgroup

Andrea Ryan

Þ federal Department of the Environment

Þ responsible for the Department’s environmental long term monitoring networks for the Pacific/Yukon region.

Þ Working with Keith Binkley to establish a monitoring station on the Pend d’Oreille downstream of Boundary Dam

Þ re-establishing a monitoring station on the Columbia River at Birchbank

Please review, add to and/or correct ...thanks

Agenda Item 2: Identify the Goals and Objectives for the Group

A group discussion identified the following GOALS for the group.

Goal #1 Pull together all the available TDG monitoring data in Canada and the U.S.

include type of instrumentation; monitoring variables, frequency and objectives; station location; monitoring agency, contact person and project information; period of record for available data; data storage location, format and accessibility; other environmental monitoring (i.e. climate, biota etc.)
need to update this TDG database as new stations come on-line
Faith Ruffing has offered to pull together all the available TDG monitoring information. Faith will be sending a monitoring information template to all TDG monitoring subcommittee members for their input. (fruffing@gte.net)
Bev Raymond has summarized all the existing monitoring data from Canada and will send the information to Faith
Keith Binkley will send Faith the Pend Oreille River TDG monitoring information
Tom Miller will send Faith information pulled together from Lewiston and McNary dams and Priest Rapids. Tom will contact George Khali about another TDG database website
the USACE annual report is another source and contains information on the USACE data collection stations, projects, current monitoring and studies

Goal #2 Compile all existing protocols (standard operating procedures); data collection methods; quality control/quality assurance methods for TDG long term/real-time monitoring.

Mary Todd Uhlir indicated that a post-season TDG monitoring meeting will be held in Portland on October 5^th (9-12am) in the USACE office. The meeting is an annual review of all the TDG monitoring and attended by all the monitoring agencies and contractors (PUD, USBR, USACE districts)
The meeting will be discussing monitoring information along with equipment, protocols, calibration techniques and data approval procedures
Mary Todd Uhlir suggested the protocols be compiled after the post-season meeting as most of the information on existing protocols will be identified at the meeting
CRIEMP is discussing a TDG Monitoring Protocol document for the Columbia River Monitoring

Goal #3 To identify the information known to date from TDG monitoring and from the information the existing data gaps

some of the data uses specified by the group were for modelling, long-term trend assessments, project operators, system-wide approach/models
a suggestion from the group was to look at all the data formats and try to combine all the data for a system wide look; hot-link each database in the internet
canadian data is not available on the internet as yet.
USACE has accessible TDG databases

Other Items Discussed by the Group

modeling was discussed briefly with a suggestion that the monitoring subgroup tie in with the modeling subgroup
suggestion by the group was to identify existing models for the data (i.e. Larry Fidler’s model ;BC Hydro Keenleyside Dam model)

NEXT TELECONFERENCE MEETING

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6^th @1300hrs

DIAL-IN INSTRUCTIONS

On Tuesday, October 6^th at 1300hrs. Phone 613-954-3981

A recording will come on "welcoming you to the government teleconferencing service" and ask you to dial in a passcode - Dial 1104 followed by the # key

Remember to introduce yourself when connected and when listening put the telephone mute on to minimize background noise.

If you have problems connecting to the teleconference, please phone 1-800-226-6338 and give them the telephone number (613-954-3981) and passcode (1104) or phone my office at 604-664-4055.

Purpose of the next teleconference:

A brief get-together to see how we’re progressing on pulling together the information identified in our goals (above), identify any further information needs/goals for the group (if members have thought of anything additional), and discuss the upcoming Oct. 15 meeting of the TGG.

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING

Review the TDG Monitoring Information Table prepared by Faith Ruffing - identify additional information needed.
Discuss the post-season TDG monitoring meeting held in Portland, Oregon on October 5^th.
Discuss the upcoming Transboundary Dissolved Gas Group Meeting in Vancouver, B.C. on October 15^th.