| Riverkeeper, Pollution, North River, Clean Up, Bacon Ridge Branch | 3 Jun 2009 |
Water Quality Monitoring: Station 5 under Rt50 Bridgeby diana |
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The above picture was taken while water quality sampling under Rt50 bridge on the South River on May 29, 2009. Notice the green-brown water color; this happened to be a mixture of suspended sediment and an algae bloom. The Secchi depth was only 0.2 meters or about 6 inches, meaning that sunlight could not penetrate below 1 foot. The cause: Stormwater runoff from the previous day's light rain bringing suspended sediment and nutrients from the headwaters (Bacon Ridge Branch and North River).
I perform weekly water quality monitoring on the South River for dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, conductivity, water clarity, turbidity and nutrients. Since early May I have seen a drastic drop in water clarity and dissolved oxygen, this is very disturbing considering the hot weather is not here yet- what are we going to see this summer?
Diana






