Impacts of barge traffic on waves and suspended sediments: Ohio River at River Mile 581.

This report summarized the data collected during a field trip made
in July- August 1987 to the Ohio River near RM 581.  During this
time, the Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
conducted extensive field experiments with rented barges and
towboats to determine the physical impacts of barge traffic on the
Ohio River.  The data collected by the Illinois State Water Survey
consist of suspended sediments at a single station, waves and
drawdown at two stations, and some water quality data.  Water
quality data for pH, temperature, conductivity and dissolved
oxygen (DO) did not show significant variations except that DO was
observed to have been reduced slightly over several individual
events.  Suspended sediment data indicated a clear increase in
suspended sediment concentrations with the 5600 HP towboat running
at low RPMs.  The durations of these increases ranged from 25 to
30 minutes.  Wave and drawdown data were collected from two
sampling verticals.  Most of the waves were of small amplitudes,
with a few fairly high-amplitude waves.  Maximum measured drawdown
was ).55 feet and the maximum wave height was 1.6 feet; however,
measured average maximum wave height was 0.45 feet at gage no. 1
(outer) and 0.42 feet at wave gage no. 2 (inner).  Average
drawdown was 0.14 feet for wave gage no. 1 (outer) and 0.10 feet
for wave gage no. 2 (inner).  Hydraulic and geomorphic parameters
for selected pools along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers when
compared with similar parameters from the Ohio River at the test
site, indicated that on a relative scale and also for similar
watershed areas, the Ohio River conveys much higher discharges
that the UMRS.  Lower reaches of the UMRS also flow on a bed of
san, silt and clay extending from the main channel to that were
observed to exist on the Ohio River.  These natural differences in
the general character of the Ohio River and the UMRS make it
difficult to generalize sediment resuspension impact data from one
river to another.  However, data collected on waves and drawdown
from one river basin may be useful for another similar river
basin.