| The TEX*A*Syst Videos received two Aegis Awards for Excellence in the field of video production 1999 |
Brad Barnett has won 2 Aegis
Awards for on-line editing for 2
videos in the TEX*A*Syst Water
Well video series. The series was
produced by Jerrold Summerlin
with graphics by Angel Fattorini.
The Aegis Awards are part of a national competition to reward excellence in the field of video production.
 Introduction to TEX*A*Syst Water Well Video |
TEX*A*Syst Water |
To see the TEX*A*Syst videos, follow the following link: Video Page
June Wolfe III*, Dennis Hoffman, Wes Rosenthal, and Don Jones, Texas A&M University, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Blackland Research Center, 808 E. Blackland Road, Temple, TX 76502 and III CORPS & Fort Hood, AFZF-PW-ENV, Building No. 4219, Fort Hood, Texas 76544-5057 *Presenting Author Phone: (254) 770-6672 email: wolfe@brc.tamus.edu 
Modeling The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has been used to estimate long term sediment loadings under two different management plans within the Owl Creek watershed on the Fort Hood Military Reservation. The Owl Creek watershed (Fig. 2) has an area of 74 square kilometers with loamy, gravelly soils. Vegetation in the area is primarily rangeland with hardwood / juniper forest. Modeling indicates that training maneuvers increase the sediment concentration 85% higher than the same system with improved pasture while sediment yield increases 98%. Runoff is barely affected (Table 1).
 | ||||||||||||
|
Table 1. Thirty-year SWAT model simulation results for average annual runoff, sediment yield and sediment concentration in the Owl Creek watershed under two management practices.
|
Monitoring Water quality on the Fort Hood reservation is evaluated by the TAES/BRC Water Quality Laboratory. Automated equipment records stream levels and precipitation and collects storm water runoff samples. Routine grab samples characterize base flow conditions. Sediment concentrations (total suspended solids) are combined with stream flow data to estimate stream sediment loadings. Stream levels and precipitation are measured and logged with Bubble Flow Meters (ISCO Inc. Model 4230). Stream level information is combined with velocity estimates obtained with an Area Velocity Meter (ISCO Inc. Model 4150), a flow probe(Global Water Inc. Model FP-101) or timed floats to estimate stream flow. Automated water samplers (ISCO Inc. Model 3700) collect up to 24 discrete, time based, samples during storm events. The samplers are enabled or disabled when the flow meter detects a specific stream level. Enable/disable levels are set so that medium and large runoff events trigger the samplers. Typical runoff events last three to ten hours on the ephemeral streams at Fort Hood. Chart 1 shows preliminary results from inflow and outflow stations on the House Creek watershed. Eleven monitoring stations on seven sub watersheds have been established. Two more are planned for a total of nine watersheds under assessment.
 |
 |
 |
Management The Fort Hood Natural Resources Environmental Division in cooperation with the NRCS have implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs) to reduce sediment losses from the Fort Hood reservation maneuver areas. BMPs currently in use include designated roads and stream crossings, sediment retention ponds, re-vegetation and brush control efforts. Designated roads provide a fixed route for transporting heavy equipment while controlling runoff to prevent erosion. Sediment retention ponds or basins collect and store silt, sand, gravel and stone eroded during heavy storm water runoff events. Re-vegetation efforts protect against wind and water erosion and lead to improved livestock forage. Mechanized removal of juniper at Fort Hood helps to restore desirable vegetation. Implementation of these BMPs is part of a comprehensive conservation management program designed to maintain and improve lands for military training at Fort Hood.
 |
 |
 |
Acknowledgments Funding for this project provided by Department of Defense and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Experiment Station, Fort Hood Go To War With Sediment
By Steve Hill
TEMPLE - Tanks may be destructive by nature, but with the help of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, the U.S. Department of Defense is trying to make them more environmentally benign. A water-quality monitoring project at Fort Hood, the huge Central Texas base where armored vehicles roam the landscape, is helping determine how soil erosion may be impacted by military training exercises. The information will be used to reduce environmental impacts, project coordinators say. While national defense won't take a back seat to efforts to keep soil in place, the Army will use the study to determine if "best management practices" for reducing erosion and sedimentation in streams are working, said Don Jones, a civilian soil conservationist for the Department of Defense at Fort Hood. "Monitoring the water quality is part of the overall resource management scheme," Jones said. "It helps evaluate our practices and indicates sediment sources."
By comparing sediment in stream flows at various sites, they should be able to tell whether various approaches to reducing erosion are working. Among those are establishing special grass "filter strips" near stream beds to reduce sedimentation. Others include building special "sediment traps" that are modified stock ponds for gathering runoff, reshaping and filling gullies, dedicating roadways for vehicle use, and revegetating with both native and introduced grasses and forbs.
Many of the practices started in 1995, about the same time Jones began planning the water-monitoring project with Dr. Dennis Hoffman, an experiment station research scientist at the Blackland Research Center in Temple. By mid-1996, Hoffman and several colleagues had monitoring stations in place, and they currently are collecting data and refining their monitoring techniques. The project team now has 10 stations located in waterways at various points on the 340-square-mile reservation, which is part of the Leon River watershed in Bell and Coryell counties. Three more stations are planned. When rain water reaches a certain level at each station, a computer-driven mechanism located in a protective case on the streambank draws water through tubes into a sampling apparatus housed in the case. Water levels are converted to flow estimates using a specially developed equation for each site. Up to 24 samples are taken on a timed basis at each site, and each is then measured for sedimentation in the Blackland Research Center's Water Quality Laboratory.
"There is some trial and error involved with both equipment and our monitoring," said June Wolfe, III, project manager for the effort. "We're replacing some of our original equipment with bubblers that measure water depth by measuring the force needed to get bubbles through a tube, and we're trying to improve our water-velocity measurement to get better baseline flow rates." Wolfe or another Blackland employee goes out every time it rains and collects samples from each station. "It's a 140-mile round trip," he said.
"We also go out at least once a week for routine maintenance. We make sure the batteries are charged, nothing is clogged, and no cows have eaten through the sampler housing on the solar panels, among other things." There have been vandals at one site and a worm clogging a water tube, but for the most part, the system has worked well. It kicks in whenever water rises above a certain level in the creeks, measuring stream flow every five minutes and pumping a sample every hour until all 24 bottles in each station are filled or the water level falls.
Other project objectives are to develop a water quality data base for Fort Hood, which is a significant component of the Leon River watershed, and to evaluate best management practices over the long term by using a specialized computer model for assessing water supplies and non point source pollution on Fort Hood. The model, called the Soil-Water Analysis Tool or SWAT, helps resource managers assess supplies, soil erosion, and water and sediment transfers through complex watersheds. It was developed at the Blackland Center and has been used for many other water projects. "We'll use the data to calibrate the model for specific predictions at Fort Hood," Wolfe said. "We may not get definitive answers on how much sediment is in a watershed, but with consistent measurements, we'll get a relatively good grasp on whether it's getting worse or better."
| Writer | Steve Hill | (409) 845-6717 | shill@agcom.tamu.edu |
| Contacts | Dr. Dennis Hoffman | (254) 774-6040 | hoffman@brc.tamus.edu |
| June Wolfe, III | (254) 774-6016 | wolfe@brc.tamus.edu | |
| Don Jones | (254) 287-1090 | jonesd@hood-emh3.army.mil |
February 9, 2000
Dennis Hoffman, Project Leader
Steve Dagitz, Webmaster