Water Quality Testing

00:08:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GY4UB8x3s4

Resumo

TLDRIn this video, Claire Camber Dela, an environmental education program manager, conducts a water quality test in a Baltimore County stream. She explains the significance of various water characteristics, including dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, nitrates, phosphates, and conductivity. Using a Wi-Fi Pro 2030, she measures dissolved oxygen levels, which are healthy but slightly lower than expected. The pH is neutral, phosphates are within a healthy range, but nitrates are a bit high. Overall, the stream appears healthy, but Claire emphasizes the importance of considering biological and physical factors for a comprehensive assessment of stream health.

Conclusões

  • 💧 Water quality is crucial for drinking and ecosystem health.
  • 🔬 Key tests include dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrates, and phosphates.
  • 🌡️ Dissolved oxygen levels indicate aquatic life support.
  • ⚖️ A neutral pH level is ideal for water quality.
  • 🌱 High nitrate levels can lead to environmental issues.
  • 📏 Conductivity measures dissolved ions in water.
  • 🌊 Stream health assessment requires multiple factors.
  • 📊 Today's tests showed healthy water quality overall.
  • 🌍 Environmental education is vital for community awareness.
  • 🔍 Continuous monitoring is essential for stream health.

Linha do tempo

  • 00:00:00 - 00:08:50

    Claire Camber Dela, an environmental education program manager, introduces herself and explains the importance of water quality testing in Baltimore County. She outlines the various chemical characteristics she will measure, including dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, nitrates, phosphates, and conductivity, emphasizing their significance for aquatic life and human use. Claire begins with the dissolved oxygen test using a Wi-Fi Pro 2030, noting the current level is 5.7, which is healthy but lower than expected. She then tests the pH, achieving a neutral reading of 7, and proceeds to measure nitrate and phosphate levels, indicating that while the phosphate level is healthy at 0.08, the nitrate level is slightly elevated. Claire concludes that the stream's health appears good based on the chemical parameters, but acknowledges the need to consider biological and physical factors for a comprehensive assessment.

Mapa mental

Vídeo de perguntas e respostas

  • What is water quality?

    Water quality refers to the measurement of physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water.

  • Why is water quality important?

    Water quality is important for drinking, ecosystem health, and recreational safety.

  • What are the key chemical characteristics tested?

    Key characteristics include dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, nitrates, phosphates, and conductivity.

  • What does dissolved oxygen indicate?

    Dissolved oxygen levels indicate the amount of oxygen available for aquatic life.

  • What is a healthy pH level for water?

    A healthy pH level for water is around 7, which is neutral.

  • What can high nitrate levels lead to?

    High nitrate levels can lead to algae blooms and dead zones in water bodies.

  • What does conductivity measure?

    Conductivity measures how fast an electrical current can travel through water, indicating the amount of dissolved ions.

  • How can stream health be assessed?

    Stream health can be assessed through chemical, biological, and physical factors.

  • What was the nitrate level found in the stream?

    The nitrate level was found to be a bit high, around 5 mg/L.

  • What is the significance of testing water quality?

    Testing water quality helps determine the health of aquatic ecosystems and the safety of water for human use.

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Rolagem automática:
  • 00:00:00
    hi everyone I'm Claire camber dela I'm
  • 00:00:03
    at the Baltimore Harbor environmental
  • 00:00:05
    education program manager for the
  • 00:00:07
    Chesapeake Bay Foundation and I'm out
  • 00:00:10
    here today in Baltimore County where I'm
  • 00:00:13
    going to be testing the water quality of
  • 00:00:16
    my local stream so what is water quality
  • 00:00:20
    it could be a number of different things
  • 00:00:22
    depending on who you are and why are
  • 00:00:24
    asking but it is the measurement of
  • 00:00:27
    physical chemical and or biological
  • 00:00:31
    characteristics of the water and you
  • 00:00:34
    could care about this because the water
  • 00:00:37
    is going to be used for drinking or
  • 00:00:39
    because you're concerned about a certain
  • 00:00:41
    population that is living in the water
  • 00:00:44
    or you could be concerned about how safe
  • 00:00:48
    the water is for recreation so the
  • 00:00:51
    chemical characteristics of the water
  • 00:00:53
    that I'm gonna be looking at today
  • 00:00:55
    include dissolved oxygen which is the
  • 00:00:59
    amount of oxygen that's dissolved in the
  • 00:01:01
    water for fish and other invertebrate
  • 00:01:04
    species that might be found falling
  • 00:01:06
    around in these rocks the temperature of
  • 00:01:08
    the water tells us a lot about the
  • 00:01:10
    season also who might be out and
  • 00:01:12
    migrating or hibernating pH is an
  • 00:01:15
    important chemical factor that controls
  • 00:01:17
    a lot of other chemical factors nitrates
  • 00:01:20
    and phosphates are the nutrients that
  • 00:01:23
    downstream can unfortunately lead to
  • 00:01:26
    dead zones in the main stem of the
  • 00:01:27
    Chesapeake Bay and then conductivity is
  • 00:01:30
    something I'm gonna be testing today
  • 00:01:32
    because we're in a freshwater stream so
  • 00:01:36
    the first test that I'm gonna show you
  • 00:01:37
    is the dissolved oxygen test and to
  • 00:01:41
    perform this test we use a Wi-Fi Pro
  • 00:01:44
    2030 and all I have to do is put a probe
  • 00:01:48
    into the water and I'll get a digital
  • 00:01:50
    readout which is pretty cool and right
  • 00:01:53
    now you can probably hear the stream
  • 00:01:56
    sort of bubbling behind me and what I
  • 00:01:58
    expect is that all this water movement
  • 00:02:01
    is going to be putting a lot of
  • 00:02:02
    dissolved oxygen into this water so
  • 00:02:04
    we'll see if my hypothesis is correct
  • 00:02:08
    so here's our beautiful bubbling stream
  • 00:02:10
    you can see I've put the probe the pro
  • 00:02:26
    20:30 tells us otherwise our design
  • 00:02:28
    oxygen level is actually five point
  • 00:02:31
    seven which is healthy but a little
  • 00:02:33
    lower than I thought it would be in such
  • 00:02:36
    a moving water stream you can also see
  • 00:02:40
    the temperature the water there it's
  • 00:02:42
    five degrees so it's still pretty chilly
  • 00:02:48
    so if you remember earlier I said that
  • 00:02:51
    moving waters were likely to have more
  • 00:02:53
    oxygen and here at this little waterfall
  • 00:02:56
    and I just couldn't help myself I
  • 00:02:58
    figured we might as well stop and check
  • 00:03:00
    the dissolved oxygen level of tier two
  • 00:03:10
    as you can see here by this little
  • 00:03:12
    waterfall you got a much higher level of
  • 00:03:15
    it's okay team now I'm gonna test the pH
  • 00:03:33
    of the water and to do that I'm gonna
  • 00:03:36
    use our trusty wide range LaMotte kit
  • 00:03:39
    this is pretty simple test
  • 00:03:40
    I've just got to mix some chemicals
  • 00:03:41
    together and compare the colors usually
  • 00:03:44
    we want our pH to be somewhere around 7
  • 00:03:47
    which is neutral so let's open this up
  • 00:03:50
    inside we've got our color comparator
  • 00:03:53
    our test tube and our region
  • 00:04:16
    add 10 dropped
  • 00:04:37
    all right so let's see for anywhere near
  • 00:04:39
    seven actually looks like it's a pretty
  • 00:04:43
    perfect match so I'm gonna say that our
  • 00:04:45
    pH level of today is seven so I'm gonna
  • 00:04:49
    take a measurement of the level of
  • 00:04:52
    nitrate in the water and this level
  • 00:04:55
    along with the phosphate level will give
  • 00:04:57
    us an idea of whether or not they're
  • 00:04:59
    excess nutrients in this water and those
  • 00:05:01
    excess nutrients can lead to algae
  • 00:05:07
    blooms and dead zones later on down in
  • 00:05:10
    the Chesapeake Bay so I'm gonna take
  • 00:05:12
    these two test tubes and fill them up
  • 00:05:14
    with stream water
  • 00:05:16
    I've put some chemicals into this test
  • 00:05:19
    tube and now I'm gonna shake it for one
  • 00:05:20
    minute
  • 00:05:30
    so now I have to let that color develop
  • 00:05:32
    for five minutes so I'm gonna start
  • 00:05:34
    another test but now I'm going to test
  • 00:05:36
    the phosphate in the water and to do
  • 00:05:39
    this we use a color emitter which is
  • 00:05:42
    makes my job really easy all right team
  • 00:05:46
    we want to see a phosphate level of less
  • 00:05:50
    than 0.1 and today we've got a reading
  • 00:05:53
    of 0.08 which is what we consider to be
  • 00:05:57
    in the healthy range so we've come to
  • 00:06:01
    the final step in our nitrate test here
  • 00:06:04
    and what I'm gonna do is you can see a
  • 00:06:07
    test tube B here test tube be this hot
  • 00:06:14
    chemical added to it which is reacting
  • 00:06:16
    with the nitrate ship to turn the water
  • 00:06:19
    shade of yellow and what I need to do is
  • 00:06:22
    figure out which number here the most
  • 00:06:25
    closely corresponds to that color that
  • 00:06:28
    test would be this turn so new be
  • 00:06:33
    definitely darker than that top that's
  • 00:06:35
    not zero not one might be close to three
  • 00:06:41
    and maybe our closest match today is
  • 00:06:44
    actually five so that doesn't mean
  • 00:06:48
    that's our result we actually have to
  • 00:06:50
    convert that to the concentration of
  • 00:06:55
    nitrate in the water which is going to
  • 00:06:57
    be in milligrams
  • 00:07:02
    so just to quickly sum up our water
  • 00:07:04
    quality results today we've got a
  • 00:07:07
    healthy level of dissolved oxygen even
  • 00:07:09
    though it's a little lower than I
  • 00:07:11
    thought it was going to be the
  • 00:07:13
    temperature just tells us that it's
  • 00:07:14
    springtime pH is right at neutral where
  • 00:07:19
    we want it to be our nitrate level is a
  • 00:07:22
    little high the phosphate levels within
  • 00:07:24
    a normal range and then the last one the
  • 00:07:29
    conductivity is also within the normal
  • 00:07:31
    range so that is normal in a range
  • 00:07:35
    between about 150 to 500 microsiemens
  • 00:07:39
    per centimeter and that's actually a
  • 00:07:41
    measurement of how fast an electrical
  • 00:07:43
    current can travel through the water and
  • 00:07:46
    it tells us how many how much dissolved
  • 00:07:50
    ions are in the water and streams and
  • 00:07:53
    urban areas can tend to have higher
  • 00:07:55
    conductivity levels which isn't natural
  • 00:07:58
    for those streams so that's why it's
  • 00:07:59
    measured a lot of times in urban and
  • 00:08:01
    suburban areas and can give us an idea
  • 00:08:05
    of stream health so if I were going to
  • 00:08:08
    be judging this stream health solely on
  • 00:08:11
    the chemical parameters that we measure
  • 00:08:15
    today then I would think it's pretty
  • 00:08:17
    healthy but that the nitrate level is a
  • 00:08:21
    little high but remember there are lots
  • 00:08:27
    of other ways to determine the health of
  • 00:08:29
    a stream so we only looked at chemical
  • 00:08:31
    factors we only looked at one day we
  • 00:08:34
    also need to consider biological factors
  • 00:08:37
    and physical factors as well
  • 00:08:47
    you
Etiquetas
  • water quality
  • dissolved oxygen
  • pH
  • nitrates
  • phosphates
  • conductivity
  • stream health
  • environmental education
  • Chesapeake Bay
  • water testing