N 2 3. Lake Huron. St. Clair River. Black River Assessment. Figure 1. Major tributaries to the Black River. 1. Berry Drain 2. Elk Creek.

Transcription

1 1. Berry Drain 2. Elk Creek Deckerville 3. Arnot Creek 4. Black Creek 5. Silver Creek 6. Plum Creek 7. Mill Creek 1 Sandusky Carsonville 8. Stocks Creek Applegate N 2 3 Croswell Peck Brown City Melvin 4 Miles 7 Yale 5 6 Lake Huron 8 Port Huron St. Clair River Figure 1. Major tributaries to the Black River. 65

2 Figure 2. Three dimensional map of the Black River watershed showing glacial features that shape the Black River valley. Black lines show boundaries of the major subwatersheds. 66

3 Minden Bog Minden Twp Wheatland Twp Segment 1 Custer Twp Bridgehamton Twp Segment 2 Sanilac Twp Lapeer County Sanilac County Elmer Twp Watertown Twp Washington Twp N Burnside Twp Flynn Twp Maple Valley Twp Elk Twp Speaker Twp Buel Twp Fremont Twp Lexington Twp Worth Twp Sanilac County Miles Arcadia Twp Goodland Twp Lynn Twp Brockway Twp Greenwood Twp Grant Twp St. Clair County Segment 3 Lake Huron Attica Twp Imlay Twp Mussey Twp Emmett Twp Kenockee Twp Clyde Twp Fort Gratiot Twp Segment 4 Lapeer County St. Clair County Kimball Twp Port Huron Twp St. Clair River Figure 3. Segments of the Black River main stem. Subwatersheds are bounded by solid gray lines. 67

4 Figure 4. Graph of late Holocene time span showing some important historical and environmental events as they relate to Lake Huron lake level. Graph courtesy of Dr. Douglas Wilcox, United States Geological Survey, Great Lakes Science Center. 68

5 Archeaological site Sanilac County N Lapeer County Miles Lake Huron St. Clair County St. Clair River Figure 5. Spatial distribution of archaeological sites within the Black River watershed indicating strong association between rivers and settlement by prehistoric Native Americans. 69

6 Figure 6. Early photographs (1864 top; 1904 bottom) of logjams from lumbering operations in the Black River watershed. 70

7 Figure 7. Early photographs (1917) of agricultural drain construction in the Black River watershed. A very large portion of the river courses in this watershed have been similarly channelized. 71

8 Figure 8. Limit of the ice readvances of 15.5, 13.0, 11.8 and 10.0 thousand years ago from Larson et al. (1994) (upper figure) and locations of shorelines of prominent proglacial lakes in the Great Lakes watershed, and their spillways and outlets from Karrow (1984) (lower figure). 72

9 Elevation (ft) West watershed boundary Madison Drain N. Br. Mill Ck. Willoughyby & Toman Drain County Line Kenny Drain watershed and transect Mill Ck. Mill Ck. Teels Drain Livergood & Ext. Drain Furlong Drain West edge of Black River valley Silver Ck. Neil Drain Black River East watershed boundary Water level in Lake Huron (581 ft) Black River Distance (mi) Figure 9. Three dimensional map (top) showing distribution of glacial end moraines and lacustrine silt and clay within the Black River watershed. Graph shows vertical profile of land elevations along a transect across the watershed. The geographic location of the transect is shown on a surface map and on graph inset. Vertical dotted lines show where the transect line intersects tributaries and the Black River. 73

10 End Moraines of Coarse Till End Moraines of Medium Till End Moraines of Fine Till Coarse Glacial Till Medium Glacial Till Fine Glacial Till Figure 10. Distribution of eleven glacial deposits within the Black River watershed shown as crosshatching. Gray lines show boundaries of subwatersheds, black lines show the Black River and major tributaries (Michigan Resource Information System, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Real Estate Division, Lansing). 74

11 Glacial Outwash Lacustrine Sand and Gravel Lacustrine Clay and Silt Dune Sand Peat and Muck Figure 10. Distribution of eleven glacial deposits within the Black River watershed shown as crosshatching. Gray lines show boundaries of subwatersheds, black lines show the Black River and major tributaries (Michigan Resource Information System, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Real Estate Division, Lansing). 75

12 Sandusky N Miles 3 1 Yale Lake Huron 6 Port Huron Sandusky weather station ( to present) Yale weather station ( to present, partial data) Port Huron weather station ( to present) 1 Black River gauge near Jeddo ( /1/1978 to present) 2 Mill Creek gauge near Avoca ( /1/1944 to present) 3 Silver Creek gauge ( /1/1978 to 9/30/1982) 4 Black River gauge near Fargo ( /1/1944 to 9/30/1991) 5 Mill Creek gauge near Abbottsford ( /1/1947 to 9/30/1964) 6 Black River gauge near Port Huron ( /1/1932 to 12/31/1943) St. Clair River Figure 11. Locations for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather stations (solid dots) and United States Geological Survey river gauge stations (black triangles indicate contemporary, gray triangles historic). The text gives station names, numbers, and period of record. Gray lines show boundaries of subwatersheds, black lines show the Black River and major tributaries. 76

13 Mean total precipitation (in) Port Huron (32.2 in) Sandusky (29.4 in) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Month 80 Mean air temperature (F) Tmax - Port Huron Tmin - Port Huron Tmax - Sandusky Tmin - Sandusky 10 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Month Figure 12. Average monthly precipitation (inches, upper graph) and average maximum and minimum air temperature (lower graph) across the Black River watershed for periods of record. 77

14 70 70 Average air temperature (F) Average maximum temperature Annual precipitation Average minimum temperature Annual precipitation (in) Year 70 Average air temperature (F) Average maximum temperature Annual precipitation Annual precipitation (in) 35 Average minimum temperature Year Figure 13. Average annual maximum (solid line) and minimum (dotted line) air temperature and total precipitation (dashed line) at Port Huron (upper graph) and Sandusky (lower graph). Temperature values are associated with left axis and precipitation with the right axis. 78

15 50 Discharge (ft 3 /sec) Pre-impact Post-impact Median 25th percentile 75th percentile Year Figure 14. Change in base flow at the Black River near Jeddo gauge, based on the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration model (The Nature Conservancy 2007). 79

16 10000 Annual peak streamflow (ft 3 /sec) Median Year 600 Annual mean streamflow (ft 3 /sec) Year Figure 15. Peak annual discharge (top graph) and average annual daily discharge (bottom graph) for the Black River measured at the Jeddo Road gauge. 80

17 1200 Black River at Jeddo Mean daily discharge (ft 3 /sec) Jan 31 Mar 3 Apr 3 May 4 Jun 4 Jul 5 Aug 5 Sep 5 Oct 6 Nov 6 Dec Calendar day Mill Creek Mean daily discharge (ft 3 /sec) Jan 31 Mar 3 Apr 3 May 4 Jun 4 Jul 5 Aug 5 Sep 5 Oct 6 Nov 6 Dec 7 Calendar day Figure 16. Average daily discharge at the Black River gauge at Jeddo (top graph) and Mill Creek gauges (bottom graph where solid line is Avoca gauge and dotted line is Abbottsford gauge) over years 1944 to

18 35 Standardized discharge Black River near Jeddo Mill Creek at Avoca Silver Creek near Jeddo Black River near Fargo Clinton River in Mt. Clemens, MI Au Sable River near Au Sable, MI Jordan River near East Jordan, MI Percent exceedence 1.0 Standardized discharge Black River, Jeddo ( ) Mill Creek, Avoca ( ) Silver Creek, Jeddo ( ) Black River, Fargo ( ) Clinton River in Mt. Clemens, MI Au Sable River near Au Sable, MI Jordan River near East Jordan, MI Percent exceedence Figure 17. Standardized high flow exceedence (top graph) and low flow exceedence (bottom graph) at four gauge sites on the Black River, Mill Creek, and Silver Creek. Data are plotted for the Clinton, Au Sable, and Jordan rivers for comparison purposes. 82