The water quality of the UHS creek was found to be excellent, however, not all creeks have excellent water quality (42). One way humans have negatively impacted water quality is through sewage and garbage runoff. When sewage and garbage runs off into creeks and streams and other water sources, it raises the nitrogen and phosphorous levels of the water, which harms the animals and possibly humans if we consume it. Another way is through point pollution, such as a factory getting rid of excess chemicals by throwing them into a water source, and therefore hurting the water quality and the ecosystem of the water source. (http://www.creekfreaks.net/sources-pollution-point-and-nonpoint) One natural way of helping stream/creek health is by not mowing the riparian zone (area around the banks of a creek). This allows the riparian zone to grow back, which helps filter storm runoff, like chemicals and trash that hurt the water quality of a stream. It also provides a habitat for many animals. It also saves money, because people/cities don’t have to mow as much. On the other hand, having a riparian zone doesn’t look as good. Also, they take up a lot of space, with one source saying it should be about 25 feet wide. (http://www.creekfreaks.net/sources-pollution-point-and-nonpoint) …show more content…
The Sand Wand removes harmful fine sediments, restoring the stream to its natural state. Another pro is that it leaves the larger sediments in place to leave part of the creek bed intact. This also restores spawning habitats, helping organisms in the stream to reproduce. A con of that is that could cause overpopulation of the stream. One other con is that this would take lots of time, as a person has to manually move the Wand all over the streambed. Also, they are altering the bed of the stream by removing things, which could harm the stream.
So we can conclude that the creek is not polluted based on this evidence. The creek creature are mostly from group 1 and 2. Also, the creek water contains little to no nitrates and phosphates. The creek also contains a high amount of dissolved oxygen (9.8ppm to be exact) Lastly, the creek limestone neutralize acid rain. The pH of the water is also a healthy 7. After all this evidence we can conclude that the creek is not
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 first piece of evidence supporting this statement is a water quality index of 48. The 7 pollution sensitive organisms in the creek are worth three points each on the water quality index, plus the 10 moderately tolerant organisms each 2 points and the 7 tolerant organisms each 1 point add up to get the 48 water quality index. The water quality level is considered excellent if it is 23 or above. The water quality in the U-High creek is more than twice that. There were many different types of organisms found in the creek including 7 pollution intolerant micro invertebrates. The total number of organisms including the 88 pollution intolerant Caddis fly larvae point to a low pollution level in the creek. The 10 moderately tolerant micro invertebrates also point to low polluted creek. There were also a high number of midges and aquatic worms. The water in the creek was also very clear and did not have a smell. There were many small fish and plants growing in and around it concluding a low pollution level in the
A big reason why Iowa struggles with water quality is due to the high amount of farming. Farming alone doesn't hurt the rivers. It is the fertilizer they put into the crops to kill weeds. The fertilizers from the fields run off into the nearby streams, then continuing into the major rivers which cause large amount of nitrates and other harmful material to present. In his article “ The North Raccoon: a river of controversy and undiscovered beauty,” Mike Kelin (2016) states that “The utility claims that farming practices in the watershed, which drains 3,625 square miles, contribute an excess of nitrates as the river flows to Des Moines.”
Let’s start out with the pollutants in this water. There was a surprising amount of pollution found downriver of Sioux Falls, the largest city in South Dakota. It makes sense that more pollutants would be coming from more heavily populated areas, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is harming all those around it. It is thought that a lot of this pollution is coming from the city waste
Located near Cowan, Pennsylvania, Conley Run is a tributary of Buffalo Creek that has experienced severe degradation due to agricultural activity. Specifically, the deposition of large amounts of animal wastes, pesticides, and fertilizers has resulted in significant eutrophication throughout the stream. Furthermore, bank degradation associated with the movement of livestock has caused the displacement of foreign sediments into stream habitats. These factors, among many others, have caused the lake to be considered “impaired” by PA-DEP. In response, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance, the the Union County Conservation District, and the Department of Environmental Protection and Fish and Boat Commision have partnered in an effort to restore stream habitat and create a riparian buffer to protect the stream.
This year I went on a field trip to the Conodoguinet Creek. This creek runs into the Susquehanna River and drains 500 square miles of diverse landscapes. Conodoguinet comes from an indian word meaning “a long way with many bends.” It begins near Carlisle at North Middleton Park and comes to an end in West Fairview, when it flows into the Susquehanna River. The Conodoguinet Creek is about 90 miles of bends and loops that meander throughout Cumberland Valley. When I went on this trip, I tested how fast the water was moving downstream. I also tested the creek for the acidity and eutrophication. Eutrophication is excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to fertilizer runoff from the
The polluted water supply that results can become harmful to humans. Aquatic life quickly suffers the effects of watershed pollution.
The Duck Creek watershed in Scott County, IA is currently facing high levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria contamination. This pollution has put the watershed on the impaired waters list for the state of Iowa. The impaired waters list is a comprehensive list of every waterway in a state that has a contamination problem according to EPA regulations (insert source for impaired waters explanation & EPA regulations). Much of the pollution that can be found in the Duck Creek watershed is coming from nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. Nonpoint source pollution significantly contributes to the deterioration of water quality due to the difficulty in identifying, assessing and controlling the sources of this type of pollution (citation Wang). This pollution is caused by runoff moving over the land. It picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, streams, rivers, wetlands and even our underground sources of drinking water (citation SCSWCD). Examples of nonpoint sources in the watershed could include failing septic systems, livestock access to streams, pastures full of manure, fertilizers applied to crops, miscellaneous urban sources such as gasoline or oil, pet waste, and wildlife (citation SCSWCD). Another source of NPS pollution is that conventional urban storm
I infer that the water quality was affected more by other factors. The two sites with about the same amount of human activity were McKinney Falls State Park and Bulls Creek. On the other hand, Wild Basin swimming is not allowed. Our results showed that the order from greatest to least amount of nitrate and phosphorous concentration was Bulls Creek, McKinney Falls, and Wild Basin at the lowest. Hence, because Bulls Creek was had the high amounts of human activity and nitrate and phosphorous levels, this relates
The importance of a watershed is that it provides our drinking water. 70% of Earth is covered in water, but unfortunately 40-50% of our nation 's water is threatened. This could result in non-drinkable water and won’t be able to swim in it or consume the fish that are caught. The leading cause of pollution in watersheds is bacteria and sediments such as E.Coli.
Our data clearly shows that the water quality is pretty good, and the ecosystem is fairly descent. The MSHA gave Sawmill Creek a 73.5 out of 100 for the habitat once we added up all the numbers from the questions we answered, giving us the conclusion that the ecosystem was fairly descent. The LabQuest gave us a pH of 6.88 and a DO of 10.85 ppm, and the chemical test kit gave us results of 7.5 for the pH, and 5 ppm for DO. Both of the pH tests gave us results around 7, which is the neutral, and is what you want. The DO is where we got 10.85 ppm for one, and 5 ppm for the other. A good result is 10 ppm, so with these results, we can conclude the that DO is somewhat decent, with both the results put together. The average velocity of our ten meter area of the creek was .29 m/s. A velocity of .29 m/s is a medium speed, making the water not to fast so creatures can not survive, but not so slow that the water just sits, creating bad filtration for the water. The turbidity of the water was also very good, with the seeing distance of over 100 centimeters using the turbidity tube. All of those tests put together make the water quality result very good. The air temperature was 24.7 degrees celsius, and the water temperature was 23.8 degrees celsius. This shows us that the stream was quite shallow, because of how close the air and water temperature was, but still enough of a difference so it was not to warm for aquatic life. With algae being the only aquatic plant we found, and finding sedges, alsike clover, milkweed, red osier dogwood, and speckled alder on the shore, we can say that these plants did not impact the water quality to an extent of affecting the water quality that much, or even at all. The macroinvertebrates in the water; crayfish, mayflies, leech’s, and 3 different egg species, did not seem to affect the water quality too much, if at
They filter out pollutants and excess nutrients, trap runoff and sediments, provide habitat for terrestrial and aquatic species, encourage biodiversity, act as wildlife corridors, regulate the temperature of the water, stabilize stream banks, and reduce the risk of flooding (Cunningham). However, such benefits cannot be yielded with buffers that are too small for the size of the stream they are protecting. To maximize the potential for a healthy river, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order streams, or headwaters, must be thoroughly protected (Hawes). Thus, we have determined two minimum widths for riparian buffers in Andrews. 1st and 2nd order streams will have a minimum of 50 feet of riparian buffer because it is the legal North Carolina minimum (Kulz). A width of 100 feet was chosen for 3rd order streams and larger because this is the practice observed in Buncombe County, which is located in a similar geological landscape to Cherokee County, where Andrews is located. No development will be permitted within the minimum measurements for these riparian buffers.
The objectives are habitat restoration, flood control, water quality, recreation development, and stewardship. The council has recommended to the City of Elk Grove the use of green infrastructure. This would allow for more of a natural drainage system that would preserve floodplains, wetland areas, and protects stream corridors. (Laguna Creek Watershed Council Work
Firstly, in Bloomington Illinois, there are plenty of farms which means plenty of farmers using fertilizer. If it were to rain after a farmer used a heavy amount of fertilizer then it could run off into the creek which would cause eutrophication which could potentially kill off many of the organisms living in the creek (as this would cause a large boom in algae population). Lastly a way humans can affect the creek (or rather has been affecting the creek already) is through littering in general, when observations were being made on the creek numerous pieces of trash were discovered, plastic bags, beer cans, and a twelve pack of a beer box. Littering will pollute the creek which can kill organisms and damage the surrounding ecosystem. Animals or small organisms that use the creek as a water source no longer will be able to as it is now polluted. Even though littering was discovered around the creek it was minimal enough that this did not hamper the water quality enough to bring it down from a excellent to