water quality agm presentation 2015
TRANSCRIPT
WATER QUALITYPresentation by Jenna MacQuarrie
What is Water Quality?
Water quality is defined in terms of the chemical, physical, and biological content
of water.
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Why sample Water Quality?We sample to: • Gauge the health of the watershed • Prioritize actions of the organization• Potentially locate sources of pollution• Communicate with residents about the condition of our local environment
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ParametersChemical•Dissolved Oxygen•Conductivity• pH• Salinity•Nitrates• Phosphates
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Physical• Temperature• Total Suspended
Solids
Biological• Escherichia coli ( E.
coli)• Coliform bacteria
CCME Guidelines for Aquatic Life
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Parameter Natural Waters Guideline
Conductivity 50 to 150 µS/cm <500 µS/cm
Dissolved Oxygen <11.35 mg/L 5.5mg/L to 9.5 mg/L
pH 6.5 to 8.5 +/- 0.2 pH units
Temperature varies +/- 0.5 0C/ hr
Phosphates 0.03 mg/L to 0.09 mg/L (TP) Flowing: 0.3 mg/L; Flowing into lake: <0.15 mg/L
Nitrates <4 mg/L MAC* of 13 mg/L
Total Dissolved Solids 0 to 1000 mg/L <500 mg/L
E. coli and Coliforms MPN of 200/100 mL H2O
* =MAC refers to maximum allowable concentration
Field Sampling• 22 sampling sites throughout
the Petitcodiac and Memramcook watersheds• DO, Temperature, pH,
Conductivity, Salinity using YSI Pro Plus Multi-meter• Procured by the PWA through
the CURA H2O Wet-Pro program
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Lab Analyses• Bacterial: • Quanti-tray® (figure)
• Colilert® bacterial growth agent • Incubator• Long-wave ultra-violet light of 366 nm
• Nutrients: YSI EcoSense Photometer & Palintest reagents• TSS and TDS: Filter papers & scale• A total of 306 samples were analyzed in
2014 between PWA’s samples and those done for individuals and other groups.
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Water Quality
Sampling Sites
Legend
__ Petitcodiac & Memramcook River
Watersheds
• Sampling Points
Chemical Results
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Dissolved oxygen levels tended to decrease in the summer months when water temperatures were higher.
Temperatures were above 20°C on 13 occasions during the 2014 sampling season.
Chemical Results
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pH of 5.85 was recorded at the South Branch of the Memramcook River.
The cause for this deviation is unknown.
Chemical Results
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• Conductivity in Rabbit Brook (RB) was consistently above the recommended guideline of 500 µS/cm. • lowest was 695 µS/cm in June.
• Other streams that exceeded this upper limit were Fox Creek (FC), Halls Creek (HC), Memramcok River (MemT), and North River (NR).
Rabbit Brook (RB) had the highest levels of Total Dissolved Solids.
Spike in TDS in the Memramcook River (MemT)
Nutrient Results
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Spikes in nitrate levels recorded at Michael’s Brook (MB), Anagance River (AR), Little River (LR), Petitcodiac River (PetR), and Pollett River (PolR), during the June from agriculture
The highest level of phosphate in 2014 was 0.8 mg/L on the Anagance River. no samples exceeded the 13 mg/L limit
Bacterial Results
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All 20 sample locations exhibited an exceedance of the Coliform detection limit at a minimum of three occasions. Irishtown Nature Park (IR) and Stony Creek (StC) having the lowest frequency of exceedance.
Four of the sampling locations, Hall’s Creek (HC), Mill Creek (MC), Meadow Creek (MC), and Rabbit Brook (RB), exceeded on all sampling dates.
E. coli was significantly higher in urban streams compared to streams in rural areas.
Rural streams in the Petitcodiac Watershed all exhibited spikes in E. coli levels during the month of July
E. coli levels peaked in summer months.
General Results•Overall water quality in urban streams was inferior to rural streams.
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• In contrast to urban streams, watercourses found in more rural areas had consistently better water quality.
• Stream urbanization is being observed in all waterways that flow through developed areas.
Recommendations
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• Include sampling for pesticides, heavy metals, and benthic macro-invertebrate to determine baseline levels• Increase frequency of bacterial sampling• Install temperature loggers at each sampling location
to give a more accurate representation of thermal variations in water temperature over time.• Continue focusing on education in regards to
stormwater management.