As part of the bench mark analysis, the U.S. Geological Survey monitors several major aspects of stream quality in addition to stream discharge, including water temperature, suspended sediment, and chemical quality. Included with chemical quality are specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, coliform bacteria, and ionic and dissolved elemental concentrations (ammonium, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, calcium, carbonate, chloride, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluoride, iron, lead, lithium, magnesium, maganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, potassium, selenium, silver, sodium, sulfate, strontium, vanadium, and zinc). The stream itself is strongly alkaline (pH 8.0-8.6) and travertine is deposited at several points along the stream channel (Bond, 1979).