Time-of-travel studies for the Little Androscoggin River, Maine

Abstract

Time-of-travel studies were conducted at flow durations of 20, 80, and 95 percent on the Little Androscoggin River from South Paris to Auburn, Maine. The river is about 29.3 miles long, and drains an area of about 354 square miles at its mouth. Traveltimes were determined by tracing the movement of rhodamine WI, a soluble fluorescent dye. The dye was injected into the river at the upstream end of each reach studied and water samples were collected at the downstream end of the study reach and analyzed for dye concentrations. Time-of-travel data were related to stream discharge to estimate traveltime for a water-soluble contaminant traveling between any two points at any discharge in the low-to-high flow range. The discharges of the Little Androscoggin River at the time of the study ranged from 40 to 950 cubic feet per second at the Auburn gaging station. Traveltimes from South Paris to Auburn, Maine, ranged from 51 to 648 hours.