Water Testing

Water Quality Issues on Lawson's Fork Creek

By Dr. Jack Turner

The water analysis that is being done bi-monthly on Lawson's Fork Creek is designed to monitor the health of the creek. The monitoring is being done the length of the creek from Inman to its confluence with the Pacolet River at six sites. This may allow us to pinpoint possible sources of contamination.

Like any urban stream, Lawson's Fork carries more than its share of pollution. In this case, pollution can come from sediment run-off, trash, and/or fecal coliforms. All of these items reduce the quality of water in the stream, which reduces its usefulness for urban recreation.

Volunteers are monitoring for the following items:

Water Temperature
pH-(how acid or basic is the water?)
Most clean fresh water systems will have a near neutral pH somewhere around 7. If we have pH levels of less than 5 the water will be unhealthy for certain organisms such as fish. If the pH goes higher than 8 then that also is not healthy.
Turbidity (how cloudy is the water)
Usually the more cloudy the stream the more "stuff" like dirt will be found suspended in water. If the water is too cloudy it is difficult for light to penetrate and algae will not grow. The algae are food for organisms that will eventually be food for fish and other higher order animals.
DO (Dissolved Oxygen) -how much oxygen is present?
This is one of the more important items that we measure. The important thing to remember is organisms that live in water also need oxygen to live. We humans live in a world that is rich in oxygen, our atmosphere is 21% oxygen whereas in the aquatic world water will not hold much more than about 0.00012% oxygen. If a fish uses oxygen from the water the used oxygen must be replaced by oxygen from the air or from the activity of aquatic plants. Plants when they perform photosynthesis excrete oxygen into the water. If we remove more oxygen than is replaced then we will generate an anaerobic or anoxic environment. This can happen in very shallow lakes and in very deep but slow moving rivers. Lawson's Fork is slower and less turbulent than most with a high load of organic matter. The DO level will most likely be in the 0.00004% to 0.00008% range. This low DO effectively limits the number and kinds of fish that will live in the water.
Fecal Coliforms
Fecal coliforms are a group of bacteria that are found in the colon of most warm-blooded organisms, including humans. They are used as indicators of fecal contamination in water. When we find high numbers of fecal coliforms in the water then there is the possibility of finding other water-borne disease organisms in that water. The major target organism in the fecal coliforms group is E. Coli, which is a known pathogen. The sources come from dogs, cats, horses or cows, and yes, failed septic tanks and broken sewer lines. All of these sources have the potential of contributing high fecal coliforms in Lawson's Fork Creek.

Want to help?

If you are interested in helping with the water quality testing on Lawson's Fork Creek, get trained and join our efforts! Call the SPACE office at 948-0000

Thanks

to the following volunteers for participating in the project:

Thomas & bonnie Webster

Lamar Baehr

Jack Turner's Biology students at USCS

Ingrid Norris

Sara Lehner

Betsy Teter

Will &Liz Fort

Penni & Steve Patton

Tommy Lytle

Helen & Ben Correll

Kristin Taylor

FRIENDS OF LAWSONS FORK

WATER TESTERS

LOCATION NAME,PHONE #, E-MAIL

INMAN Thomas and Bonnie Webster 473‑1699, tfwebs@aol.com

Lamar Baehr 582‑6124 work,baehr189@aol.com

VALLEY Jack's students at USCS

FALLS Jack Turner 503‑5711 work, jturner@gw.uscs.edu

WHITNEY Ingrid Norris 576‑7285, tilig@aol.com

John Woodward 703‑2351, woodwardanne@msn.com

COTTONWOOD Kathleen Schenkel 585~7623

TRAIL James Harrison 583‑4407

GLENDALE Steve and Penni Patton 585‑8878, no email

Bill,KristinTaylor 582~1586, no e‑mail

GOLDMINE RD Helen and Ben Correll 582~3965, hscorrell@yahoo.com or

.bcorrell@correllinsurance.com

John R. Poole 579‑0434, no e‑mail

SUBSTITUTES:

Sara and Paul Lehner 579~7926, sellisl@charter.com

Betsy Teter 577~9349, bteter@bellsouth.net

Will and Liz Fort 542~8289, lizfortl@charter.com

SPACE office 948~0000