Total Nitrogen and Suspended-Sediment Loads and Identification of Suspended- Sediment Sources in the Laurel Hill Creek Watershed, Somerset County, Pen

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Overview

Laurel Hill Creek is a watershed of 125 square miles located mostly in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, with small areas extending into Fayette and Westmoreland Counties. The upper part of the watershed is on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection 303(d) list of impaired streams because of siltation, nutrients, and low dissolved oxygen con- centrations. The objectives of this study were to (1) estimate the annual sediment load, (2) estimate the annual nitrogen load, and (3) identify the major sources of fine-grained sedi- ment using the sediment-fingerprinting approach. This study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was done in coopera- tion with the Somerset County Conservation District. Dis- charge, suspended-sediment, and nutrient data were collected at two streamflow-gaging stations-Laurel Hill Creek near Bakersville, Pa., (station 03079600) and Laurel Hill Creek at Ursina, Pa., (station 03080000)-and one ungaged stream site, Laurel Hill Creek below Laurel Hill Creek Lake at Trent (sta- tion 03079655).