1. Water Quality Testing
Unit 1: The hydrosphere

2. Why is it important to test water quality?
Our bodies are 70-80% water
Diverse use and increased demand of available freshwater
Pollution directly usurps the water cycle
Where does this pollution come from?
Impacts the diversity of aquatic life – why is this important?
Recreational use as well
Food chain

3. Today’s Water Quality Tests
Turbidity pH
Dissolved oxygen
Nitrate
Phosphate
Alkalinity

4. Points of Reference White Perch Drinking Water Alkalinity - >20 ppm
Turbidity – <50 JTU
pH –
DO – >5 ppm
Nitrate – ppm
Phosphate - <0.1 ppm
Alkalinity – high!
Turbidity - <0.5 JTU
pH –
Nitrate – <10 ppm
Phosphate - <0.1
ppm

5. Alkalinity
Ability of a stream to buffer an acidic pH – preferred in abundant levels
(usually) Indicative of a calcium carbonate (or like) bedrock
Add indicator to sample water; run a simple titration (amount of titrating agent added will indicate levels)

6. Turbidity
Cloudiness of the water, caused by suspended (in the water column) sediments
Caused by disturbed/eroded sediment AND microorganisms
Blocks sunlight from reaching Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV)
Shallow water test with a turbidity “target” measured in JTU (approx. equivalent to NTU)
Trying to match the “fuzziness” of the targets (shake before testing)
Shake the water once you get back inside; collect from middle of water column!

7. pH What is the pH of “normal” water?
An indication of a sample’s “acidity”
Logarithmic scale
Wide-range pH kit
Will probably take pH strips to Goose Creek
As data is collected, a more narrow-range kit can be substituted
Why would we want to do this?

8. Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
Necessary for aquatic organisms to live (respiration)
Comes from atmosphere and aquatic photosynthetic organisms
Dispersal rate is related to the movement of the water
The warmer the water, the lower the potential DO level
Winkler methods – “fixing the sample”
Producing iodine in direct proportion to DO

9. Nitrate and Phosphate
Enter from human/animal waste, decomposing matter, and fertilizer runoff
Eutrophication – adding of nutrients to increase plant growth
Is this always good?
Color matching tests

10. Outside/Inside As a class, we will have three sites
Upstream = 3
Middle = 2
Downstream = 1
Each group should take a temperature at each data site and make observations about where they collect the water from
In your plastic Erlenmeyer flaks, collect a sample of water at each site.
Where in the water column should we collect from?
When we return inside, each group will run their respective water quality tests and enter their data on the class data sheet

11. Testing Groups – Period 6
Alkalinity – Andrea, Sydney, Jared
Turbidity – Habiba, Jalen, JP
pH 1 – AJ, Will
pH 2 – Josh, Fernando
Dissolved Oxygen – Leila, Brandon
Nitrate 1 – CJ, Ashley
Nitrate 2 – Molly, Sydney W.
Phosphate – Cade, Yazan

12. Testing Groups – Period 7
Alkalinity – Carly, Valerie, Sebastian, Ashwin
Turbidity – Julia, Taylor, Nate, Ken
pH 1 – Sophia, Ayla, Raymond
pH 2 – Shreya, Sarah, Jeremy
Dissolved Oxygen – Martha, Brianna, Brandon, Vinnie
Nitrate 1 – Monet, Brigid, Vince, Michael
Nitrate 2 – Lauren, Christianna, Rumon
Phosphate – Tim, Brie, Taylor, Kishan

13. Testing Groups – Period 8
Alkalinity – Aisha, Ashton, Mustafa, Brian
Turbidity – Kat, Skye, Cole, Edwin
pH 1 – Jocelyn, Maddie, Hadi, Nate
pH 2 – Dilpreet, Jack, Delia, Trinity
Dissolved Oxygen – James, Lauren, Nicka, Peter, Sam
Nitrate 1 –
Nitrate 2 –
Phosphate – Rachel, Cha-cha, Dislher, Jackson