Indiana River Watch Pigeon Creek Fort Branch, IN

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Indiana River WatchPigeon CreekFort Branch, IN

• Chemical Group
• Meghann Miller, Zack Bristow, Melissa Klemeyer,
  Jamie Ott, Melissa Michel, Adam Johnson, Andy
  Hollis, Ryan Jones

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What did we do?

• The chemical group did several tests to calculate
  certain conditions of the water in Pigeon Creek
  just north of the bridge on Coal Mine Rd in Fort
  Branch, Indiana.

• Tests included
• Dissolved Oxygen saturation
• BOD5 level
• E. Coli level
• pH level
• Temperature of Water
• Nitrate/Nitrite level
• Turbidty
• Ammonia Nitrogen level

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Why did we do it?

• The chemical group did these tests to find the
  quality of the water in this part of Pigeon Creek.

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Dissolved Oxygen

• Dissolved oxygen concentration is the amount of
  oxygen in the water. Oxygen dissolves into the
  water from the atmosphere until the water is
  saturated.
• Dissolved oxygen is essential to aquatic life,
  because aquatic life survives off of oxygen
  dissolved in water.

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What is E. coli?

• E. coli bacteria are found in the feces of
  warm-blooded animals that are naturally found in
  the digestive tracts of animals.
• Certain strains of E.coli can lead to illness in
  humans.

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What is pH?

• pH is a measure of the activity of hydrogen ions
  in a solution.
• Solutions with pH values lower than 7 are
  considered acidic.
• pH values higher than 7 are considered alkaline.

• Certain aquatic life thrives better in different
  levels of acidic water. Some organisms require
  higher levels of acidic water than others.

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BOD5

• BOD5 is biochemical oxygen demand
• Polluted streams generally have high BOD5 levels.
• It is a measure of the amount of oxygen used by
  oxygen-consuming bacteria as they break down
  organic wastes over five days.

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BOD5 Levels Indicate

• 1-2 mg/L BOD5 Clean water w/ little organic waste
• 3-5 mg/L BOD5 Fairly clean w/ some organic waste
• 6-9 mg/L BOD5 Lots of organic material and
  bacteria
• 10mg/L BOD5 Very poor water quality. Very large
  amounts of organic material in water.

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Why do we test for Nitrate and Nitrite?

• Nitrates and Nitrites are an essential nutrient
  for plant growth. They can lead to increased
  aquatic plant growth and eutrophication.

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What is Turbidity?

• Turbidity is the relative clarity of the water.
• Turbid water contains matter including clay,
  silt, organic and inorganic matter, and algae.
• Turbid water may be the result of soil erosion,
  urban runoff, algal blooms, and bottom sediment
  disturbances caused by boat traffic or abundant
  bottom feeding fish.

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How did we do it?

• All of the tests involved taking a sample of the
  creek water, then applying certain testing
  equipment, and then recording the data.

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Dissolved Oxygen Test

• 1. Get a sample of water 25mL
• 2. Place the CHEMet ampoule in the sample of
  water, snip the tip by pressing the ampoule
  against corner of cup, ampoule fills.
• 3. Mix contents of ampoule by inverting it 5
  times, wait 2 minutes.
• 4. Hold ampoule horizontal, match color to color
  chart on the lid of the CHEMet kit. Use graph
  provided in order to calculate the percent
  saturated.

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E.Coli

• 1. Aquire Coliscan Easygel bottle, petri dish
• 2. Take water, put Coliscan Easygel bottle, mix.
• 3. Transfer contents of bottle to petri dish.
• 4. Incubate for 24 hours at 35 degress Celcuis
• 5. After Incubation, count all purple/blue-violet
  colonies in dish, record as E.Coli per 100mL of
  water count all pink and magenta colonies,
  record as coliforms.

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pH level

• 1. Get sample of water.
• 2. Dip a pH test strip in water for 10 seconds
  with constant, back and forth motion.
• 3. Remove from water, shake of excess, wait 20
  seconds and match color on pH level chart.

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BOD5

• 1. Fill a stopper black(light-free) bottle below
  the water's surface. Close bottle underwater to
  insure no air bubbles.
• 2. Place in a light-free location at room
  temperature and allow to sit for 5 days.
• 3. Test oxygen level after 5 days.
• 4. Find results by the following formula(DO(day
  1)-DO(day 5)

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Nitrate/Nitrite Level

• 1. Get sample of water, then dip test strip in
  sample for 2 seconds, wait on minute.
• 2. Match Nitrite color/ to the chart on dip test
  strip bottle
• 3. Find Nitrate level by multiplying Nitrite
  number and 4.4 together.

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Turbidity level

• 1. Rinse Turbidity tube, then fill underwater.
• 2. Remove water until pattern can be seen in the
  bottom of tube.
• 3. Compare centameters of water on Q-Value chart
  to find Nephelometer Turbidity Units.

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What is a Q-Value?

• Scale that you use to turn raw value into
  comparable data points
• Example-Making Temperature comparable to
  dissolved oxygen. (Degrees Celsius to
  Milliliters.)

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How Do You Find Q-Value?

• For Dissolved Oxygen
• First we took the average of the three sample,
  which was 9.
• Then, we took the water temperature, which was 13
  degrees C.
• On the graph provided in our packet, we drew a
  line starting at the Dissolved Oxygen
  Concentration (9) ruler to the water temperature
  ruler (13 C).
• In between the two rulers is a Dissolved Oxygen
  Saturation () ruler, which the line crossed
  approximately at 86.
• We used the chart given to us, to find the
  q-value. We had to estimate just a little, but it
  still had the same result.

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What did we find?

• DO saturation 9mg/L
• E.Coli level 2 colonies/100 mL
• pH level 7.7 units
• BOD5 level 2mg/L
• Nitrate level 0mg/L
• Nitrite level 0mg/L
• Turbidity level 90NTU
• Transparency 5.8cm

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What does it mean?

• The overall health of the creek was good, with a
  water quality index rating of 71.82