City of Sparks Rock Park Whitewater Park Monitoring Plan & Implementation

The city of Sparks has retained JBR Environmental Consultants, Inc. for a five-year, intensive monitoring program for the newly constructed Rock Park Whitewater Park. In order to comply with conditions imposed by the regulatory agencies, JBR developed and is implementing the Monitoring and Reporting Program, which incorporates all sampling protocols for evaluating:

• fish passage,
• sediment transport,
• in-channel feature stability,
• flood flow performance,
• riparian vegetation,
• water quality,
• aquatic habitat, and
• benthic macroinvertebrates.

In order to best manage the data and analysis of the five-year program, our team will utilize MS Access, Excel, ArcGIS, HEC-RAS, and Flow 2D modeling software. Project highlights include Radio Frequency ID tagging and tracking of over 150 resident Truckee River fish per year; calibration of hydraulic model parameters with measured velocities and roughness coefficients; underwater photometric substrate monitoring techniques; and velocity measurements to develop rated sections for each park feature (drop structure). Reporting will include coordination and report approval requirements from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nevada Division of Wildlife, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, and the Nevada State Engineer. JBR will provide annual reports and presentations to the City of Sparks and other agencies in partnership with Summit Engineering.