Water volume and sediment volume and density in Lake Linganore between Boyers Mill Road Bridge and Bens Branch, Frederick County, Maryland, 2012

Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5082
Prepared in cooperation with the City of Frederick, Maryland and Frederick County, Maryland
By: , and 

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Abstract

To assist in understanding sediment loadings and the management of water resources, a bathymetric survey was conducted in the part of Lake Linganore between Boyers Mill Road Bridge and Bens Branch in Frederick County, Maryland. The bathymetric survey was performed in January 2012 by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Frederick and Frederick County. A separate, but related, field effort to collect 18 sediment cores was conducted in March and April 2012. Depth and location data from the bathymetric survey and location data for the sediment cores were compiled and edited by using geographic information system (GIS) software. A three-dimensional triangulated irregular network (TIN) model of the lake bottom was created to calculate the volume of stored water in the reservoir. Large-scale topographic maps of the valley prior to inundation in 1972 were provided by the Frederick County Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management and digitized for comparison with current (2012) conditions in order to calculate sediment volume. Cartographic representations of both water depth and sediment accumulation were produced, along with an accuracy assessment for the resulting bathymetric model. Vertical accuracies at the 95-percent confidence level for the collected data, the bathymetric surface model, and the bathymetric contour map were calculated to be 0.64 feet (ft), 1.77 ft, and 2.30 ft, respectively. A dry bulk sediment density was calculated for each of the 18 sediment cores collected during March and April 2012, and used to determine accumulated sediment mass. Water-storage capacity in the study area is 110 acre-feet (acre-ft) at a full-pool elevation 308 ft above the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929, whereas total sediment volume in the study area is 202 acre-ft. These totals indicate a loss of about 65 percent of the original water-storage capacity in the 40 years since dam construction. This corresponds to an average rate of sediment accumulation of 5.1 acre-ft per year since Linganore Creek was impounded. Sediment thicknesses ranged from 0 to 16.7 ft. Sediment densities ranged from 0.38 to 1.08 grams per cubic centimeter, and generally decreased in the downstream direction. The total accumulated-sediment mass was 156,000 metric tons between 1972 and 2012.

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Water volume and sediment volume and density in Lake Linganore between Boyers Mill Road Bridge and Bens Branch, Frederick County, Maryland, 2012
Series title Scientific Investigations Report
Series number 2013-5082
DOI 10.3133/sir20135082
Year Published 2013
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Water Science Center
Description vi, 17 p.
Country United States
State Maryl
County Frederick
Other Geospatial Linganore Creek Watershed
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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