[David BresslerParticipant]

Juniper,

Yes this could continue to be an issue, especially if the big storms keep coming.  Who knows though if sediment will continue to be deposited right there at your station or whether another high flow event might move some of it out from that specific spot.  If you and Christa map the channel cross section again that will give you an idea of how much it has changed since installation.

Do you know where the likely sediment sources are in the upstream watershed?  Are there any hotspots?…exposed soil at construction sites, unvegetated reaches with eroding banks, erosional areas at road crossings?

 

[Juniper LeiferParticipant]

UPDATE FOR THOSE FOLLOWING THE STORY:

Christa and I will be meeting at the Lopat sensor station on Monday 1/21 at 10am to assess the situation.  This is an open invitation to anyone who is interested in meeting us there to take a look at our buried sensors or offer any input on the best ways/times to make the necessary changes.  It’s pretty amazing that the stream can change so significantly and so quickly.

We will establish a game plan and schedule for the re-installation asap if we determine that it is plausible in these weather conditions (and if the sensors aren’t frozen into the stream bed or water).  I will be sure to come back to post the date and time as an invitation for anyone interested to join us.  We will likely re-map our cross section at this time as well.  Participants, onlookers, and experts are all welcome.

Location: 477 Rt. 519, Greenwich NJ (It’s the Warren County Morris Canal Plane 9 Museum).

[Matt GisondiParticipant]

The downstream site at the Ridley Creek cluster has also seen some changes with the stream bed too. Lauren McGrath, the owner of the stations at the cluster, decided it was best to remeasure the cross-section. After inputting the data into a new stage-to-area predictor, there was a noticeable difference. Currently, they are still taking discharge measurements but filing them into two discharge calculators where one holds every discharge while the other only holds discharges after the new cross-section.

I’m interested to see how much your site has changed Juniper.

[David BresslerParticipant]

For these sites where channel cross sections are re-measured it will be very interesting to see the two cross sectional profiles overlain on one another, showing the specific ways in which the channel has changed since a station was installed.  Juniper’s site on Lopatcong should clearly show the substantial deposition that has happened.  Pickering Creek at Phoenixville, as well as Ridley Creek at Ashbridge Preserve, have also had notable changes in the channel, due to scouring and sediment deposition from the many high flow events in 2018.

[Anonymous]

This is also the case on the Little Lehigh (Wildlands Conservancy) site, there has been so much deposition that there are sand dunes 10-15 ft from the banks, amazing! When it warms up a bit and we can remap these channels it would be a great graphic to put up here for visualization of sediment transport.

[Author]

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