Results of Aquatic Ecological Surveys at Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, Lawrence, Kansas. Part I. Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality.

Aquatic ecological surveys were initiated in the principal drainages from Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant (SAAP), Lawrence, Kansas, and in the Kansas River, Baseline ecological surveys were initiated in the spring of 1975 before the construction of a new nitroguanidine facility at SAAP to establish the present condition of aquatic communities in the receiving stream, and to compare them with conditions after the survey. Sampling consisted of benthic macroinvertebrate collections from up to eight locations and water-quality measurements from seven locations, which are reported here. Macroinvertebrates were collected from rock-filled barbecue baskets (suspended in the Kansas River and attached to the substrates in the creeks), from portable invertebrate box samplers riffles, and from dip-net and hand collections. Fauna from the creeks was predominately riffle beetles, caddisflies, and mayflies; caddisflies and mayflies were the most abundant species in the rock-filled baskets from the river. Blackfly larvae were predominant in Spoon Creek, which had a high organic load from farmland runoff before it entered SAAP. No adverse conditions were observed in temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH during several days of continuous monitoring. Changes in hardness, turbidity, alkalinity, nutrients, and chloride were directly related to fluctuations in discharge.