REPORTS & DOCUMENTS
FRWA Stream Water Testing
FRWA has been doing water testing on Fry’s Run for years. In the last few years,
we have been doing simple testing above and below the place that the PennEast Pipeline is mapped to cross. (NOTE: On September 27, 2021, PennEast canceled its controversial plans to build a 116-mile natural gas pipeline from Northeast PA to Mercer County. It was a stunning turnaround after a years-long fight by environmentalists and a recent PennEast win in the New Jersey courts.)
At the end of last year, we decided to increase our testing. Our objectives are
to establish a baseline of water quality results, track trends and changes, and document possible episodic changes vs. sudden changes to the stream. (We
will continue with water testing despite the apparent exit of the specific Penn-
East concern.)
We chose 3 sites for testing:
• Headwaters
• Durham Bridge
• Fry’s Run Park
Our tests are:
- Air & water temperature, turbidity/transparency (Turbidity in water is caused by suspended sediments, such as particles of clay, soil and silt, which frequently enter the water from disturbed sites and can contain pollutants such as phosphorus, pesticides, or heavy metals.)
- pH (Optimal range 6.5 to 8.2)
- Conductivity, which is related to salinity and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) because those ions allow water to carry an electrical current. (Changes in conductivity can also be explained through land use, catchment geology and flow. For example during periods of low flow, ground water has a greater influence on conductivity.)
- Dissolved O2, which affects the ability for oxygen breathers to thrive. If low, it shows a stress on O2, such as a plant or algae bloom.
- Nitrate/Nitrogen, which can indicate an increase in fertilizers or fecal matter.
- Benthic (meaning “bottom-dwelling”) testing, which involves taking inventory of macroinvertebrates, the very small insect larvae of dragonflies and stoneflies, etc., which are among the most reliable indicators of water quality and the stream’s ability to maintain a healthy food chain.
- We also observe for signs of problems such as erosion, sedimentation, and embeddedness (the extent to which rocks and snags are covered or sunken into the silt, sand, or mud of the stream bottom; if it is easy to pick up or move the rocks and stones on the stream bottom, then the stream has low embeddedness).
We are doing this testing twice yearly, in April and October.
More details to follow.
We would like to thank Scott Douglas of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association for his help with this program, especially the benthic testing.
See other FRWA reports and documents, below:
