Water Quality Test Data

 

 

Name of Tester:  Joel and Jacki Clark        Date:  7/05/08    Time:   1:30 PM                

 

 

Location :  Charles Spring Basin

         

Recent and Current Weather

 

We’ve had daily rain in the area for the past 23 days.  It’s sunny and clear today, with temps in the low 80s. 

 

 

Description of Area (Include plant and animal/insect life)

 

Erosion control areas have failed, allowing sediment to flow into the basin and run.  Human traffic is high, with evidence of four wheeler activity in the basin and run.  Here, evidence of the drought is overwhelming.  The water level in the basin is extremely low.

 

Description of Water (Include aquatic plant and animal/fish life)

 

What little water there is present in the basin is stagnant and cloudy.  There is a barely perceptible boil coming from the upstream side.  We saw one snake (couldn’t see enough of it to identify) in the water, as well as one small bass and several water boatman bugs.  Note:  the water sample was taken from the boil itself, not the stagnant part of the basin.

 

pH: 7.4   (6.5-8.5)                                Temperature:  22.2 C @ time of test

 

TDS:  184 ppm  ( <500 ppm)          Nitrate:  5 ppm  (< 10 ppm)            Nitrite: 0 ppm (< 1 ppm)

 

DO:  2.5 ppm  ( >2 ppm)                    Phosphate:  1.75  ppm  (<0.1 ppm)        Turbidity:  n/a

 

BOD:  unavailable                           Flow:  not measured                                  WQI:  35.98-62.56 which

                                                                                                                                                 is fair to average

 *Numbers in parenthesis are acceptable limits.

 

Cave Species Counts: 

 

The cave was not entered.

 

 

Date and Time of E. Coli Count: 7/07/08 @ 4:00 PM        E. Coli (purple w/wo pink halo): 480/100 ml

 

Non-Fecal Coli (pink, light pink): 720/100 ml     Other Bacteria (teal/pale/yellow/clear):  840/100 ml

 

Implications and questions:  Because we currently lack enough results to track trends, no true conclusions can be wrought from the data.  As more tests are completed, trends should become visible.  Still, I find it intriguing that the bacterial counts are less here than at Cow on the same day.  The visible condition of the two springs couldn’t be more contradictory to the bacterial counts.  It brings to mind some interesting implications.