Day 2 Water quality tests

Blackwater River at Thomas

Today we tested portions of the Blackwater River with our environmental probes.  I went into the river by Thomas where the sandstone causes acidity from the mine drainage.  The ph was 4.07 and the water quality was fair.  Next I tested a stream feeding the Blackwater in Coketon where pyrite causes acidity from mine drainage.  Its ph was 3.21 and its water quality was the bottom number of the average water quality.



Stream feeding Blackwater River
 at Coketon



    

The water quality was not what I expected. I expected the first area in the river to have better water quality because of the lower acidity and this site had small fish while in the stream I saw no life.  This showed that while acidity is important it is only one factor in the quality of the water. The area that we took readings in had a lot of different native plants and animals. Nature has done a good job in reclaiming the land.  At the Coketon site you could see cloudy looking water as you walked downstream from where my stream was located.  These areas were where they had added limestone sand to raise the ph and to make the river less acidic. It was nice to see that nature is making a comeback in this area. It was also fun to walk into the water to get readings instead of just reading about it.