Deep Creek Science: Modeling the Deep Creek Watershed To Better Be Able to Respond to Adverse Impacts.

The goal of this website is to accumulate in one place, and report on, information that can be used to construct a computer simulation model of the Deep Creek watershed. This website will be a work of constant change; some parts are not yet fully operable. This website is, in part, inspired by the Deep Creek Watershed Management Plan (called the Plan from hereon). You too can contribute your specialized knowledge to this effort by contributing to this website. Check out this link for how. Keep in mind that the Plan is basically a very broad statement as to what needs to be done in order to keep the Deep Creek Watershed healthy but does not specify how this is to be accomplished. My belief is that this can only be done over the long run with simulations of processes in the watershed. The proposed modeling efforts hopefully tie together all of the individual efforts outlined in the Plan.

Any suggestions are welcome!

More to come...

About: Deep Creek Science

As mentioned above, this website is devoted to the development of a computer model that will be able to simulate the environmental workings of the Deep Creek Watershed, and particularly Deep Creek Lake, since it is the economic engine of Garrett County. This is understandably not an easy task, in part because it requires a lot of data, much of which that does not exist today or is incomplete. In the long run the computer model can be expected to be an important tool to help keep the lake healthy for generations to come. Simulations could be performed to better understand how to respond to adverse impacts. The efforts described in the Plan all feed into this modeling work, and conversely, this modeling work will hopefully help define the various tasks in the Plan.

The Plan, a copy of which can be downloaded from here , provides a course for protecting, enhancing, and restoring the resources of the Deep Creek watershed. The Plan was developed as a cooperative effort between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Garrett County, and members of the local community. The Plan provides an array of actions to address the concerns expressed by local citizens and evaluated by the steering committee and its subcommittees. The actions also address the need to continue analyzing ongoing issues, address new issues, and manage the resources. The Plan is not intended to replace or supplement any existing plan, regulation, or policy. Instead, it identifies problems and proposes actions to be considered by state and local authorities as well as local educators and organizations. The Plan does not define a methodology or approach by which the effectiveness of all of the proposed actions can be evaluated. This website hopes to be the missing link.

This website proposes tasks that must be accomplished for the proposed simulation effort, and assembles the existing data that are needed. At the same time, consideration will be given how this work feeds into the information needed by the Plan. It is hoped that other people can contribute to this effort, either in small ways or more significant ways. Tasks will be identified and defined that can be accomplished by High School Students, College Students, Masters and PhD programs, DNR, MDE, and private organizations. It is work that all those that have a stake in the lake should participate in, in one form or another. Check out Actions → Proposed Projects

The Topic(s) of the Day!

10/17/2017 - Revised Deep Creek Hydro Water Appropriations and Use Permit

All waters in Maryland belong to the State. Any amount of annual average daily withdrawal above 10,000 gallons requires a 'water appropriations and use' permit by the State. Since the Deep Creek Hydro Project, operated by Brookfield, Inc., exceeds this minimum average daily usage, Brookfield is required to operate under a State permit. The current permit expires in the spring of 2019 and many stakeholders in the waters of Deep Creek Lake seek to revise the permit because the current language does not reflect an equitable use of the waters. This issue is discussed in detail here, including suggested modifications for inclusion in the new permit. Visit this website regularly to see the status of the 'permitting' work performed.

9/10/2016 - Reference material

Check out the menu item "Resources → Documents".

Here I have collected all of the annual reports, available since 1993, associated with the operation of the Deep Creek Hydroelectric facility under its different ownerships. The first report, the 1993 report, is a complete characterization, done by Penelec, of the Deep Creek watershed. I have not been able to locate an annual report for the year 2003. Anyone?

9/5/2016 - Projects You May Be Able To Do!

Check out the menu item "Actions > Proposed Projects".

All kinds of small and large projects have to be done in order to achieve our goal of simulating the watershed. There are projects than can be done by high school students, college student projects, master and PhD thesis and private companies, in addition to the typical programs performed by DNR and MDE. The above mentioned webpage describes some of these. If you have an idea about others that could be performed, let me know, and I'll include them in the list. Do check them out.

9/1/2016 (Updated: 10/17/2017) - The Data Vault

This is expected to be an important aspect of this website, a 'vault' containing experimental observations and measurements. A separate menu item has been created for this. Check out "The Data Vault."

I'm collecting data and measurements of any kind that may be relevant to the watershed. For example, I have posted all of the bathymetry data that DNR measured in 2012, over 600,000 data points. I've posted them as text files so that anyone can easily read them. The data is 'clean' and 'valid'.

I have extracted, so far, from Brookfield's annual reports, the daily average lake levels and rainfall for the years 2011 through 2015. The data is clean and in text format.I added graphs of these data in such a way that one can see what the actual values are on a given day. Do check this out.

From some of Brookfield's monthly reports I've extracted and cleaned up the temperature measurements made at the Sang Run river bridge for the months of June through August for the years 2011 through 2013.

Recently (2017) I've added a lot of data and analysis of such data pertaining to the effect to create a more equitable water use permit for Deep Creek Hydro. A lot of this data has been extracted from Deep Creek Hydro's operator's annual reports.

There is more data to be extracted and I'll post them when this gets done. I will also post the references that I got them from and plots of the data so that you can get a feel for what's there. I will also post some of the programming scripts that can read the data and plot them as nice graphs. If you want to be kept informed when new stuff is added shoot me an email to the address listed on the right, or fill out the form at the top right.

8/15/2016 (Updated: 10/17/2017) - Dredging

This is the topic of the day as pushed by Friends of Deep Creek Lake (FoDCL). There is no question that some dredging is needed, but the extent is not clear.

FoDCL held a forum in the Himalayan hut at the Wisp on Saturday, August 13, 2016. There were some very good presenters, but their experiences were all with small lakes, less than 50 acre lakes. It is not clear how this can help specifically to Deep Creek Lake, although it did provide some insight in dredging operations. For now, this website will focus on data that may be useful in assessing dredging operations, such as bathymetry and lake level variations.

More to come...