Rural residences and stock ponds are present throughout the basin, and several lakes lie in the upper basin where waterfowl production is managed. Historical Water-Quality Data Samples for chemical analyses have not been collected routinely at the Little Vermillion HBN station. The data set analyzed for this report for the Little Vermillion River HBN station includes 121 measurements of instantaneous discharge and 113 measurements of specific conductance for the period February 1976 to August 1995. The entire period of record for discharge is from 1966 to 1997. Median values and ranges of discharge and specific conductance are shown in table 44.
Specific conductance is an indicator of dissolved solids.
Based on the range of specific-conductance values, dissolved solids generally are high at this site. Specific conductance had an inverse relation with discharge. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was -0.716 and was significant for an a of 0.01. The water type at the Little Vermillion River HBN station is a calcium-magnesium sulfate type. Sulfate contributed 64 percent and bicarbonate contributed 33 percent of total anion concentration.