Water Quality Comparisons Between Centennial

Brook and Mill Brook

FISHious and Delicious

Introduction ● Why do we need water?

● Point Source Pollution (sewage drain)

● Non Point source Pollution (runoff from a farm)

● What is a watershed?

● What is directly affecting our water?

Centennial Brook ● The brook is 0.8 miles long

● Class B water according to Vermont Water Quality Standards

● The source is a retention pond in Burlington VT

● Surrounded by construction zones and an urban city

Watershed

area:

887 acres

Impervious Surfaces

impervious

surfaces

impervious

surfaces

impervious

surfaces

Land Use Legend:

Red/Pink= Developed land

Green=Forest

Brown= Open land

Blue= Wetlands

71%= developed land

25%= forests

4%= open land

Mill Brook

● Located in Jericho, Vermont

● Class B waterway

● 9.5 miles long

● Forests, low-medium

intensity developed lands,

farm fields, and woody

wetland areas

Watershed area:

10,350 acres

Impervious Surfaces at MB

impervious

surfaces

impervious

surfaces

impervious

surfaces

Land Use at MB

Legend:

Green= Forest

Red/Pink= Developed

Yellow= Pasture/Hay

Blue= Wetlands

Brown= Open Lands

5%= developed land

85%= forest

10%= open

Where we

were

Land Use Comparison

(visual estimate)

4% 10% 5%

We hypothesize that Mill Brook has better water quality than Centennial Brook

because it is located in a rural setting as opposed to being an urban stream.

● Runoff from paved roads can lead to high levels of conductivity, nitrate, and

phosphorus.

● In Mill Brook, there are dirt roads and an abundance of tree growth (which acts as

a buffer zone).

● On google earth there is a golf course and farm fields near the stream, however the

ratio of developed land to forest was smaller than the area surrounding Centennial

Brook.

Hypothesis

Riparian Habitat Conditions

Centennial Brook Total Avg:149.2

Mill Brook Total Avg: 151.9

Habitat Condition Ranges

Optimal: ≥153

Suboptimal: 130-152

Marginal: 80-129

Poor: <80

pH● All bodies of water must be between a pH of 6.5 to 8.5.

● pH can be affected by multiple variables

o factories that affect the rain water or naturally occurring acidic soil

● a pH detector is the most well known way to observe the pH

o a small probe is dropped into the test water

o it senses for the amount of hydrogen or hydroxyl ions.

Temperature1) Water isn’t tested without reason

2) Both ambient and test-area water are tested and recorded

3) Test-area water must be within a certain range of varying ambient temp

Ambient Temp

(Fahrenheit) Total Fluctuation

Allowed

(Fahrenheit)

66 1

63-66 2

59-62 3

55-58 4

below 55 5

Centennial Brook Mill Brook

68.2 F 62.6 F

(Watershed Management Division 2014)

Dissolved Oxygen (DO)

Vermont EPA Standard Centennial Brook Mill Brook

At least 6 mg/l or 70%

saturation

9.13 mg/l or 99% saturation 11.14 mg/L or 114% saturation

● DO is the oxygen available for organisms to respire

● Enters through surrounding air

● Lots of variation based on environmental and human impacts

(Watershed Management Division 2014), (Sharon Behar 1997)

Affects both temperature and DO levels

Reference Points

(Pears 61), (Schlyter 10).

Light

Mill Brook Centennial Brook

591.7 Lux 11,935 Lux

Office Lighting Full Daylight Indirect

Sunlight

320-500 lux 10,000-25,000 lux

Conductivity and Total Dissolved Solids

20 microSiemens/cm (10 ppm TDS)

>2000 microSiemens/cm (1150 ppm TDS)

● ICP measured the amount of

each element in the water

● Elements found in the brooks

were collected within the

watershed area.

● The human impact on

Centennial Brook was higher

than the impacts on Mill

Brook

ex: The sodium, the calcium,

and the magnesium levels for

Centennial Brook compared

to Mill Brook

● The Soluble Reactive Phosphate can occur in water systems as organic or inorganic

● PO4 is limiting nutrient

Soluble Reactive Phosphate(PO4)

● Nitrates get into the water from salt, sewage and manure. This

affects organisms and humans.

● Nitrates in the water affect the organisms through

eutrophication. It affects human through Blue Baby Syndrome

what leads to a disease called methemoglobinemia.

NO3-: Nitrates in the Water

Claire working with the HACH Colorimeter

machine finding the NO3-.

EPT Index

EPT = Ephemeroptera(Mayflies), Plecoptera(Stoneflies), Trichoptera(Caddisflies)

A higher EPT percentage indicates less water pollution.

Centennial Brook 18%

Mill Brook 70%

Results

Multimetric Index

Centennial Brook 9

Mill Brook 8

The multimetric index is a tool that is used to determine the biological water quality

of the brook.

Even though Mill Brook scored lower than Centennial, we safely concluded that

Mill Brook was healthier due to the abundance of EPT specimens.

A scanning electron microscope is a high powered

magnifier that uses charged electrons to beam a picture

at very high magnifications (up to 30,000x)

Scanning electron microscope

SEM pictures

● What it is?

● What we found

● Why it’s important?

● What you can do to help?

Champlain BLUEⓇ

ConclusionCentennial Brook Mill Brook

Physical:

Riparian

- +

Chemical:

pH

Temp.

DO

Light

Conductivity

Dissolved Solids

PO4

NO3

0

0

-

0

0

0

-

-

0

0

+

0

0

0

+

+

Biological:

EPT

Multimetric

-

+

+

-

Thank You!

BibliographyVermont Department of Environmental Conservation Water Quality Division, comp. Total Maximum Daily Load To Address Biological

Impairment in Centennial Brook (VT08-02) Chittenden County, Vermont. Rep. 28 Sept. 2007. Web. 25 June 2015.

"Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC)." Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC). Web. 25 June

2015.

"5.9 Conductivity." 5.9 Conductivity. Web. 26 June 2015.

"Definition of Water Quality Parameters." Water Quality Parameters. Web. 26 June 2015.

Pears, Alan. "Strategic Study of Household Energy and Greenhouse Issues." (n.d.): n. pag. Sustainable Solutions Pty LTD, June 1998. Web. 26

June 2015.

Schlyter, Paul. "Radiometry and Photometry in Astronomy." Radiometry and Photometry in Astronomy. N.p., 7 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 June 2015.

(Gosnell), (5.7 Nitrates), (Chen, Zieve, and Ogilvie), (Self and Waskom)