Portage Creek Gaging Station EarthCache
Portage Creek Gaging Station
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A gaging station is a facility used by hydrologists and others to
monitor streams, rivers, lakes, canals, reservoirs, and other
bodies of water. Gaging stations typically collect information such
as water height and discharge (flow). The collected information is
recorded by a site visit or is transmitted via telephone or a
satellite communication system to the stations owner.
Portage Creek Gaging Station
The Portage Creek Gaging Station is operated by the USGS (United
States Geological Survey). This gaging station records water height
and discharge and transmits its data back to the USGS headquarters
in real time by telephone.
Portage Creek is 12.5 miles long and its watershed covers an area
of 22.4 square miles. Portage Creek flows into the Kalamazoo River
which, in turn, empties into Lake Michigan. The watershed includes
land uses of approximately 21.3% urban, 52.4% open space and
forest, 3.1% water/wetlands and 23.2% agriculture. Hampton Lake,
the Schuring and Consolidated Drains, the West Branch of Portage
Creek and Axtell Creek all contribute their waters to Portage
Creek.
The posted coordinates above will lead you to the gage house. This
brick structure holds the stream gaging equipment - typically a
gage of some type, a computer, and communications equipment. A
stilling well or a vertical pipe is located beneath the gage house.
Water enters the well through one or more inlet pipes. The water in
the well rises to the same level as the stream. Recording equipment
in the gage house records the water level in the well.
Communications equipment transmits the data to the USGS.
During winter months this gage station may be affected by ice. To
verify correct measurements from the gage station a staff gage has
been attached to the bridge next to the gage station. A staff gage
is just a pole like board with incremental measurements in feet
inscribed on it.
This gaging station is operated in cooperation with the City of
Kalamazoo and Pfizer.
Gaging Station History
In the 1880's, John Wesley Powell, the second director of the USGS,
requested that stream flow be monitored in eight river basins in
the West. It was his idea to measure the flow of streams and rivers
and determine the viability of irrigation systems for this acrid
region. In 1889, the first U.S. stream gaging station was
established on the Rio Grande River in New Mexico. At this station,
standard stream flow measurement procedures were devised.
Today, the USGS operates and maintains more than 85% of the
nation's stream gaging stations. There are over 7,000 stream gaging
stations in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.
Territories of the Pacific Islands.
The USGS uses it's stream gaging network to provide a free
continuous source of well documented and archived water data. This
data is used by government agencies and private companies to
forecast flooding, design bridges, allocate drinking and irrigation
water, for recreational use, and to manage our valuable surface
water resources.
Real time data for this gage station may be found the internet at:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=04106300&agency_cd=USGS.
Logging Requirements
To log this cache we ask you to complete the following. All that
should be posted with your log will be a photo. All answers should
be e-mailed to us (via our profile) and not posted in your log. Go
ahead and log your find at the same time you're sending your email
answers. We reserve the right to delete find logs that haven't
emailed their answers.
- Please post a picture of yourself/team with the gage house in
the background.
- Go down to the edge of the stream and note the height of the
stream on the staff gage. Email us the height measurement.
Please be careful, the gaging station is located right next to the
road. Although parking is not allowed on Lovers Lane, parking is
located close by - both north and south of the bridge. Here's a
shot of the gage house. It has a sign on the door identifying
it.
Congratulations to Cheesedogg on the FTF!
Additional Hints
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