Budget Estimate for Turbidity Threshold Sampling
Rand Eads and Jack Lewis
Redwood Sciences Lab
USDA Forest Service
July 2006
Startup Cost (materials & equipment)
Required Instrumentation (for each station)
1-Campbell CR10X (or CR1000)
1- DTS-12 turbidity sensor
1-Pressure transducer (Druck 1230-1830, PSI range depends on site)
1-Campbell ENC 12/14 data logger enclosure
1-Pumping Sampler, ISCO 3700 (or ISCO 6712C)
1-ISCO pumping sampler battery connector and cable
1-ISCO pumping sampler flow connector and cable
Staff plates & staff plate mountings
Other supplies (hardware/cables/fasteners/grounding)
1,270
2,700
750
230
2,600
50
50
200
150
Power
1-12V Battery (26 to 30Ah gel cell, multiply number of stations by1.5)
1-Battery charger
1-Solar panel and mounting hardware (optional, recommended)
Required Equipment Total
Other Sensors (optional)
1-Campbell TE525WS-L tipping bucket rain gauge
1-Campbell 107-L with radiation shield, air temperature probe
90
45
400
$8,000
400
200
Telemetry (optional, recommended)
1-Campbell GOES Satellite Transmitter (qualified institutions)
1-Campbell COM210 Telephone Modem (land line)
1-Campbell Raven100, Yagi antenna, cell modem
1-Campbell RF416 2.4 GHz, Radio modem
Total
2,850
350
850
475
$3,200
Facilities and Structures
1-Equipment shelter (depends on size & materials, range $500 to $3,000)
1-Sampling boom and DTS-12 sensor housing
1-Pressure transducer conduit and anchors
Total
1,500
1,600
100
$3,200
Field Supplies and Materials
Desiccant pack
Pumping sampler intake tubing, 3/8” id
25
25
Extra pumping sampler bottles ($4/ea.)
Depth-integrated bottles and caps
Total
300
150
$500
Required Office & Field Equipment and Software (one set for all sites)
1-Campbell LoggerNet software(or PC400 if no telemetry is installed)
1-Campbell SC32B Optical RS-232 Interface (office use)
545
80
1-Campbell communications cable (field use with battery power)
1-Windows XP laptop, spare battery, car charger, or inverter
125
Total
$750
Manual Measurement Equipment (check catalogs and suppliers)
• Wading or bridge discharge measurement equipment
• Wading or bridge depth-integrated sampling equipment
Cost estimates are provided for information and planning purposes only.
Contact the manufacturers to obtain a price quote.
Equipment Installation
• Two person crew, 2 days, if equipment is pre-fabricated and assembled
• One person, 1 day, to install & test cables, data logger, sensors, set parameters
Data Collection
Site visit transportation time is assumed to be 30 minutes each way
Non-storm Maintenance
• 1 person, 1 hour, weekly or biweekly (depends on local site conditions)
• Download and plot data file
• Make observations and notes
• Clean turbidity probe as needed
• Exchange pumping sampler bottles, if required
Storm Visits (two persons recommended)
• Discharge Measurements
o Approximately 1 hour/measurement/site (time/measurement depends on
method and channel width/depth). Collect 20-to-30 discharge
measurements/site, spanning the range of flows, to establish a stagedischarge rating equation. Attempt to complete in first year.
o On-going (additional) discharge measurements are required if the
measurement section is unstable
• Depth-integrated Samples
•
o Approximately 30 minutes/measurement/site (time/measurement depends
on method and channel width/depth)
o Collect 20 to 30 simultaneous depth-integrated and pumped samples over
measured range of turbidities
Equipment Maintenance
o Approximately 30 to 60 minutes/visit/site
o Remove debris from the turbidity probe, housing, staff plate, and boom
may be required several times during each storm event.
o Take multiple readings of the staff plate during each storm to permit
correction of the electronic.
o Exchange pump sample bottles as required and download data file
(frequency depends on sampling parameters, storm size, and time since
last visit)
o Make observations about the site that can affect data quality
Laboratory Processing
• Commercial laboratory cost/sample varies, check your local sources
• Time to process one sample (at Redwood Sciences Laboratory) takes about 30
minutes, or 50 minutes when adding sand fraction analysis
• Number of pumped samples/station/year depends on the station’s sampling
parameters and number of storms measured (for an estimate use 60 to 80
samples/station/season)
• Perform additional sand fraction analysis (>0.63 microns), as needed, on depthintegrated/pumped sample pairs
• Laboratory Data Entry
o 20 samples/hour
o Second data entry to ensure no errors (same time as above)
Data Analysis
Estimates based on existing RSL procedures, hence no program development costs
•
•
Software installation and training (1 person/1 week/first year only)
Data compilation, correction, and coding (1 person/6 days)
o Plot the raw stage and turbidity data
o Adjust stage data when observer records indicate systematic errors
o Reconstruct missing stage/discharge data if possible, by interpolation, or
from nearby gaging stations
o Remove erroneous turbidity data, or add quality code identifying problem
conditions
o Append data and create annual file for:
ƒ discharge and turbidity
ƒ pumped samples
•
•
•
ƒ depth-integrated samples
Determination of stage-discharge rating curve (1 person/4 hours)
Analysis of simultaneous depth-integrated and pumped samples (1 person/4
hours)
Estimation of storm-wise and annual suspended sediment loads (1 person/ 3 days)
o Develop storm-wise turbidity-sediment rating curves and estimate
concentrations from 10-min or 15-min turbidity data
o Apply discharge-sediment rating curves or time-interpolation to storm
segments containing erroneous turbidity data
o Compute storm-wise sediment loads from discharge and corresponding
concentrations from previous steps
o Compute annual sediment loads
ƒ Estimate inter-storm loads using annual turbidity-sediment rating
curve or discharge-sediment rating curve
ƒ Add inter-storm sediment loads to storm sediment loads
Cost Summary
Use appropriate hourly rates for your institution or group. Total hours include travel
time where appropriate, and a two-person crew for storms. Facilities, vehicles, and
other employment overhead costs are not included.
Startup (first year only)
Required equipment, facilities, structures, and supplies
$12,450
Equipment installation (40 hours @ $xx/hour)
640
Discharge rating (90 hours @ $xx/hour)
1,440
Depth-integrated samples (60 hours @ $xx/hour)
960
Software installation and training (40 hours @ $xx/hour)
640
Supervision & training (40 hours @ $xx/hour)
1,000
Total
17,130
Annual Cost (recurring)
Non-storm maintenance (26 weeks x 2 hours/week @ $xx/hour)
Storm visit (4 hours/visit x 8 storms @ $xx/hour)
Laboratory analysis (10 samples/storm x 8 storms @ $xx/sample)
Laboratory data entry (80 samples x 2, 8 hours @ $xx/ hour)
Data compilation, correction, and coding (48 hours @ $xx/hour)
Determination of stage-discharge rating curve (4 hours @ $xx/hour)
Analysis depth-integrated/pumped sample pairs (4 hours @ $xx/hour)
Estimate sediment loads (24 hours @ $xx/hour)
Supervision (20 hours @ $xx/hour)
Total
832
512
2,000
96
768
100
100
600
500
5,508