About two hundred forty one thousand two hundred twelve people live in Cumberland County, and all of those people somehow pollute the Conodoguinet Creek. The Conodoguinet Creek is a tributary to the Susquehanna river, which is the longest river on the American East Coast, spanning 464 miles long and draining into the Atlantic ocean. Many things, such as livestock, construction sites, fossil fuels and fertilizers, all go into the Conodoguinet creek. Now, that is A LOT of pollution that can (or will) go into the creek. This does not just affect the Conodoguinet Creek, but everything that the creek drains into, like the Susquehanna river, then the Chesapeake bay, and then the Atlantic ocean, which covers over 20% of thie whole globe! As you …show more content…
Each person got to test either the phosphates, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, or the ph in the creek. Phosphates and nitrates are nutrients found in water due to fertilizers, decaying plants and bacteria. Dissolved oxygen is the amount of gaseous oxygen dissolved in the water. As we recorded our results, we discovered that the dissolved oxygen levels were very high, which is good because the higher amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, the healthier the creek is. The phosphates levels in the creek were all perfect zeros, which is great because having nutrients in the creek is not healthy. The nitrate levels were slightly higher, at 0.9. That is not bad at all, but it isn’t perfect, showing signs of pollution. The ph levels in the rocks were neutral, right at seven. If they were lower than 7, that would mean they have acids in them, and if they were higher than 7, they would have alkaline in them. Alkaline, or bases, neutralizes acids. The number of rocks that we found that neutralized acid was 65, and the number of rocks that did not neutralize acids were 29. This shows that about one-third of the rocks in the creek do not neutralize acids.
As the data showed, the Conodoguinet creek is NOT polluted! There were many macroinvertebrates living in the creek that could only live in non polluted
At the first station I was at, we were looking for macroinvertebrates and crustaceans. When we found one of the insects we had to determine which group they belonged in. One way to determine if the water is polluted is to look at which group the critters are mostly from. My group and I tested this by taking turns going into the creek and finding a rock to bring out. When we brought the rock out of the water and back to our group we had to make sure to turn the rock over because the critters normally live on the bottoms of the rocks and most likely would fall off if you didn’t turn it over. After we all took turns a couple of times
The pH scale is 1 to 14, 7 being the best quality. To the right is a pH scale. 7 is what the water should be. 7 is also what we had for the creek average. We had a higher number of rocks neutralizing acid (limestone is the stone found mostly in the creek) than the ones that don’t. this means that the acid rain we get is mostly neutralized by limestone in the stream. We get acid rain from Philadelphia. This is because of the massive steel companies. All of the toxic smoke comes over and comes down in the conodoguinet as acid rain. So the creek is non-acidic and non-alkaline.
On October 8th, 2015 our 8-Orange team took a field trip to the Conodoguinet Creek to test the water quality. The Conodoguinet Creek was tested about 2 different times. It was tested about 2 times to take a test to see if the water was polluted or unpolluted. The results will help you understand the conflict of the Conodoguinet Creek.The water came up to about our knees. This trip was different but very informational.
Dry Creek station was likely built in the spring of 1860 by Bolivar Roberts and his crew. It was one of the last stations to be built by the Pony Express. It is located four miles north of Highway 50, in Lander County, Nevada. The station was used by the Pony Express and Overland Stage as a home station (historic). The Pony Express riders would go from Dry Creek westward to the north (expedition.com). The riders had a high chance of getting attacked by the Native Americans and this proved to be true at Dry Creek. They had early problems with the Indians, which caused an attack on the workers of the station on May 21, 1860. On this day William Streeper, a carrier of heavy mail and two others found the scalped and mutilated body of the station
Although it will take a lot of time and effort to rectify the conditions at Newtown Creek, the variety in the recommendations from all the groups shows how many options are available to go about it. Some of the ideas need some more foresight in accounting for all three pillars. For example, it is not always a good idea to focus too much on environmental needs if the tradeoffs put social needs at too high of a risk. Even so, each suggestion has its own merit, especially when you use them together. By implementing multiple ideas you are tackling more then one issue/pillar at a time. Therefore, the overall outcome is better then limiting the benefits to a specific area of mediation. As Gestalt’s Theory in psychology states, “the whole is greater then the sum of the parts.” To have a successful whole you must have numerous inter-reliant components with different levels of priority depending on effectiveness, cost, social impact, and time frame.
Imagine an Earth devoid of clean rivers with no inland marine life or readily available freshwater. This situation may arise if humanity does not volunteer to end its polluting tendencies. Initially, each individual should focus on taking steps towards decontaminating his or her nearest water body. For those living in Delaware, this is the Delaware River, which is in need of drastic reform. “The Delaware River . . . is the fifth most-polluted river in the country, according to a report released . . . by Environment New Jersey” (Augenstein). However, this obstacle did not arise spontaneously. A recognized problem by the early eighteenth century, Delaware River pollution remained a serious issue for the next 300 years and mostly stemmed from rapid population growth and booming industrial activities (“Delaware River Water Quality”). As the years progressed, Delawareans continuously disregarded the Delaware River, and it is now immensely besmirched as a result of accumulating neglect for the river. Because of this, Delaware waters continued to befoul past the threshold of safety. Delaware waterways are currently unsafe for commercial use due to the presence of pollutants and parasites like Giardia and Cryptosporidium in the river that can cause significant health problems, especially in individuals with weakened immune systems (“Delaware”). The polluted Delaware River, sullied by companies despite the Clean Water Act, may cause a decline in Delaware’s’ marine life, human
Our experiment was conducted in late January at Wet Beaver Creek. Wet Beaver Creek is located south of Flagstaff in the Coconino National Forest (34.663470, -111.669943). Wet beaver creek has an elevation of 1158 meters, with an average annual precipitation of 42.4434cm, and an average temperature range of 26.711111 C in July and 6.166667 C in December. The Wet Beaver creek area has a perennial and ephemeral stream, each with diverse riparian woodland, composed of Populus fremontii (Fremont Cottonwood), Fraxinus velutina (Arizona ash), Platanus wrightii (Arizona sycamore), Juniperus deppeana (Juniper), Alnus oblongifolia (Arizona Alder), and Quercus arizonica (Arizona white oak).
In conclusion all of this data helped us determine if the creek was healthy or polluted. The eutrophication test and acidity tests gave us a really good idea if the creek can neutralize acid and how many phosphates and nitrates are in the creek. We now know that the Conodoguinet Creek is a limestone creek. The stream insects and crustaceans that we found had a positive effect on our hypothesis. Out of all of our data, we have found out that the Conodoguinet Creek is a healthy creek.
On Thursday, October 6th, 2016 I studied the Conodoguinet Creek in Cumberland County, PA. I went to the creek to study the health of the creek itself (Phosphate levels, Nitrate levels, Dissolved Oxygen levels, pH levels, and Alkalinity levels). My hypothesis was: If I test the Conodoguinet Creek for signs of acid rain, eutrophication, or other types of pollution, then the tests will reveal that the creek is healthy and has very low levels of pollution. Eutrophication, is the excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other bodies of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life due to lack of dissolved oxygen. Dissolved Oxygen (or DO), is the microscopic bubbles
Alkalinity not only measures the pH of water and how basic it is, but also how likely the water is to resist a change in pH. Bicarbonate and carbonate help to create this buffer for the water. Alkaline in aquatic environments comes from the rocks and soil in which the water flows through and carries away certain parts and properties of the rocks and soil. The average freshwater body tends to have 20 to 200 ppm to create a solid buffer and also have the slightly basic qualities it needs. The Chagrin River has an alkalinity value of 136 ppm, which falls right in the middle of the average alkalinity of freshwater. This is because the pH was slightly higher than the average and has a slight buffer, but not enough to throw off the natural balance and chemistry of the water. Since Nitrogen is such an important component in aquatic ecosystems, as all organisms in the ecosystems need nitrogen to create proteins, it is necessary to test for it when determining if a body of water is healthy or not. Too much nitrogen can result in an overgrowth of algae, or eutrophication. This process takes up much of the oxygen in the water, leaving very little for animals, causing them to suffocate and die. Drinkable water has the cutoff of 10 ppm for the nitrate levels, while completely unpolluted waters tend to have nitrate-nitrogen levels lower than 1 ppm. The Chagrin River measured 2.0 ppm of nitrate, which is low for a freshwater body. It is extremely close to the unpolluted water value of 1.0
My hypothesis is if the creek has higher levels of phosphates and nitrates, and lower level of dissolved oxygen, then the creek will be polluted. The levels of nitrates and phosphates should be near 0 ppm for the creek to not be considered polluted. The dissolved oxygen levels should be higher if the creek is healthy. Dissolved oxygen is essentially the amount of oxygen in the water. For the acid rain test, we put a solution on different rocks to see if the acid dissolved the rocks. The nitrate and phosphate test involved getting a specific amount of creek water, putting different solutions in the water, and matching the solutions with other vials to determine the state of the water.Photo Credits to Alex Cathers
There are many forms of pollution throughout the United States, but one of the major sections of pollution is in our water ways. Having pollution throughout our water causes many problems not only for the environments within the water, and the environments outside of it as well. One of the major concerns when it comes to pollution is that people do not seem to care as much as they should. They don’t view it as a big problem, when in reality, it is one of the biggest problems facing the world today.
Pollution of water can cause a lot of problems. In his article “The North Raccoon: A river of controversy and undiscovered beauty,” Mike Kilen they took a water sample that found nitrates at fifteen milligrams per liter which is five milligrams higher than the level safe for drinking water. That indicates that the water of this river is polluted with nitrates which is an issue as far as drinking water goes. The author further states that nitrates in drinking water can lessen the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream. This can greatly affect the brain considering that it needs oxygen to function. This informs people of the danger behind this pollution. Kilen concludes that “Eighty percent of its watershed is covered with two crops-corn and soybeans.” This gives insight as to where the problems is coming from. In this article there is
There are also many more natural pollutants that are affecting the waterways.”Those include animal waste, litter, motor oil, yard clippings, fertilizers, pesticides,and soapy car
The company should be responsible for the pollution since people have the right to live in a safe environment. Klity creek is unsafe because of the lead mining company, releasing chemical to the creek and has made water contaminated. This affects