Poplar River Bilateral Monitoring Committee 



Department of State 

 Washington, D.C., United States 



Governor's Office 

 State of Montana 

 Helena, Montana, United States 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 



Department of Foreign Affairs 

 and International Trade Canada 

 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 



Saskatchewan Environment 

 Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada 



Herein is the 23rd Annual Report of the Poplar River Bilateral Monitoring Committee. This report discusses the 

 Committee activities of 2003 and presents the Technical Monitoring Schedules for the year 2004. 



During 2003, the Poplar River Bilateral Monitoring Committee continued to fulfil the responsibilities assigned by 

 the governments under the Poplar River Cooperative Monitoring Agreement dated September 23, 1980. Through 

 exchange of Diplomatic Notes in March 1987, July 1992, July 1997, and March 2002, the Arrangement was 

 extended. The Monitoring Committee is currently extended to March 2007. 



The enclosed report summarizes current water-quality conditions and compares them to guidelines for specific 

 parameter values that were developed by the International Joint Commission under the 1977 Reference from 

 Canada and the United States. After evaluation of the monitoring information for 2003, the Committee finds that 

 the measured conditions meet the recommended objectives including boron and total dissolved solids (TDS). 

 Concems over an upward trend in the concentrations of TDS in the East Poplar River between the late 1980's and 

 1995 were investigated. The results of the investigation indicated that the temporal changes in TDS 

 concentrations were most likely primarily linked to natural drought events. 



Based on UC recommendations, the United States was entitied to an on-demand release of 370 dam^ (300 acre- 

 feet) from Cookson Reservoir in 2003. A volume of 386 dam^ (313 acre-feet) was delivered to the United States 

 during this period. In addition, daily flows in 2003 met or exceeded the minimum flow recommended by the UC 

 except for June 7-11, June 13 to September 9, September 11, and December 28-31. 



Several changes were made in the Technical Monitoring Schedules for the year 2003. The ground-water 

 monitoring network operated by SaskPower was reduced from 180 piezometers to about 85 piezometers after 

 receiving approval from Saskatchewan Environment. This reduction was based upon modelling studies 

 undertaken by SaskPower. In 2003, due to a reduction in available funding and using specific conductance to 

 estimate TDS, the number of surface-water-quality samples collected at both Poplar River boundary stations by 

 the U.S. Geological Survey was reduced from six per year to four per year. In 2004, the number of surface-water- 

 quality samples collected at these stations will be reduced further, with the U.S. Geological Survey collecting 

 four samples and Environment Canada collecting none. 



Yours sincerely, 



Robert Davis 

 ChairmanJJnited States Sectron 



Richard Kellow 

 Chairman, Canadian Section 



^Stults 

 lember. United States Section 



