FDNSC Water Awareness

5/15/11

rhododendron creek.

by naomi cloutier

Creek feeder:
Long, thin, has a dead worm I the bottom; it probably got drowned during a rainstorm. If you look at the stream about five feet away it looks like a long aquatic snake. The water is cold, but feels nice. The grass around the stream if healthy, some of the grass is swept up by the water and is flowing with the movement. There was a small blockage made of leaves and shrubbery. The stream ran clear and clean, smoothly shuffling through any obstacles.
Creek:
There were many aquatic animals, for example:
-         2 crawfish. Crawfish 1: 1 inch, reddish and grey. Crawfish 2: quarter inch, small, blue grey.
-         6 or more Minnows, small grey, about one millimeter or more.
-         Earth worm 1 inch, brown. Alive near the shallow point of water.
All of which looked very healthy. A little ways downstream there was a large pipe, I predicted it was leading from the previously spotted storm drain. There was a plastic bag, a can, and a shoe near the pipe.

Pipe: the soil was dark and grey; there were small particles of shiny stone. The pipe had a diameter of about 5 feet. A can, fabric so condemned it was almost part of the soil. The pipe was black.

5/20/11

Creek Feeder, Before pipe, After pipe

Dissolved Oxygen

By: Sophie and Madi

Results:

Feeder Creek:

-Site 1A: 9 1/2 ppm

-Site 2A:  n/a

-Site 3A: 11 ppm

Rhododendron Before Pipe:

-Site 1A: n/a

-Site 2A: 40 ppm

-Site 3A: n/a

Rhododendron After Pipe:

-Site 1A: n/a

-Site 2A: 40 ppm

-Site 3A: n/a

What We Tested And Why:

We tested the dissolved oxygen level in Rhododendron creek, before and after the pipe and the creek feeder.  We test this because a good amount of oxygen in our water is a sign that’s its healthy or clean. A lack of oxygen is a sign of severe pollution, and can lead to less aquatic life.

Acceptance Levels in a Healthy Creek:

Procedure:

1)      Fill a dissolved oxygen bottle with the water you want to test.

2)      Add magnesium sulfate (2 ml) and Alkali-Iodide-Azide (2 ml) to the bottle. Stopper on the bottle and shake carefully. Let it set until the upper half is clear, then shake again. Make sure there are no air bubbles. This should look like a brownish orange.

3)      Add 2 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid.

4)      Titrate the solution with sodium thiosulfate, and continue doing this until the solution turns completely clear.

5)      Each ml of thiosulfate used to make the solution clear, is equal to 1 mg/l of dissolved oxygen. Use the amount of thiosulfate to decide the amount of dissolved oxygen.

May 20th 2011
creek feeder:
-looks clean.
-the grass is growing right on the shore, it is practically in the water.
- creek is making gurgling noises .
-creek feels pretty cool.
- a warm is in the creek .
- some foamy debre is in the creek.
-reeds growing in the creek .
-if water is stirred creek gets muddy and cloudy .

crook before pipe:
- fish swimming in creek.
-the shore has man made a built in filter.
-house built in right next to creek.
-garbage floating in creek.

creek after pipe:
-garbage in pipe filler.
- cray fish.
- little fish swimming in creek.
-water looks clean
-water feels cool
- lots of rock and pieces of cement

May 20th 2011

8:30-12:00

Rhododendron Creek

Creek before pipe:
I saw lots of dirt, sand, and rocks in the water.
I saw many fish swimming around.
The water felt cold.
I saw lots of vegetation surrounding the creek on both sides.
I saw a couple crawfish.
I saw construction and houses about 20 yards away.
I saw trees surrounding the creek on one side.
It was mostly shady.

Creek after pipe:
I saw many fish swimming around.
There was shade and sun around the creek.
The water got cloudy when stepped in and stirred up.
I saw lots of dirt and sand and rocks.
I saw some trash around the creek and in the water.
The water is cold.
We found a shoe in the water.

Pipe:
The pipe is very dirty inside.
I saw sticks and braches inside the pipe.
I saw dirt and vegetation surrounding the pipe, above, below, and around.

Creek feeder
I saw grass and plants growing around the creek.
I saw sand and rocks on the bottom of the creek.
The feeder is very thin and shallow.
The feeder runs into a pipe.
I did not see any aquatic life in the feeder.
The water feels cold.
The water looks clear.
I saw a few trees surrounding the creek feeder.
The grass around it was very close to, and in the water.
We saw a worm near the feeder.
There was some trash in the feeder.
We found a toy action figure by the creek.

Groundwater Depletion                                                                           Kate Donnelly

Aquifers are like huge underground lakes. The water in aquifers is called underground water. Underground water provides half of all the drinking water in the U.S. Over 50 billion gallons a day is pumped out of the aquifers. When the rate that water is pumped put of an aquifer gets to the rate at which it re-charges, the aquifer will be affected by groundwater depletion.

Now, as the demand for water has increased all over the world, the pumping rate of groundwater has increased, which has caused groundwater depletion to also increase. The levels of water that are in aquifers are dropping at a constant rate, and at some point in time in some places, they may not be able to provide a necessary life long supply of water. An aquifer that originally held 4 trillion tons of water, is now 50% depleted.

There are many ways that Aquifers can suffer from groundwater depletion:

• Aquifers that are on the coast that are experiencing constant pumping could suffer saltwater invasion, because salt water becomes drawn in to take the place of freshwater. Saltwater invasion has already become a problem in New Jersey, New York, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, S. California, etc.
• Water that is being drawn into an aquifer to come and take the place of water lost to constant pumping may be of poorer quality, or of have different chemicals. Because it’s chemically different, this water may cause a chemical reaction in the aquifer which could arouse naturally-occurring contaminants. Etc.

One of the causes of groundwater depletion is we are not conserving our water. In order to decrease groundwater depletion we need to start having more efficiency in our water use, we also need to start re-using our water. Also, another cause of having low water availability in many other regions is linked to the decreasing forest cover and soil degrading.

One way to fix groundwater depletion is to have a resource exchange solution could reduce groundwater pumping big time and allow the aquifer to re-charge over time. This is a short-term solution, and we need to start coming up with long-term solutions.

Bibliography

www.peaktoprairie.com

www.jnvenvis.nic.in/subject/freashwater/groundwater.htm

April 23rd, 2010

There is a slight breeze and sunny weather. There was a lot of noise from the birds chirping. The creek was running at a slow pace maybe because of the wind. There was a lot of mud on the bottom which showed unhealthiness.