Just a short update. After running into difficulties finding a freshwater
body of water to test (the one we wanted to use turned out to be brackish),
we finally settled on
what *seemed* to be a freshwater spring-fed lake in a nearby neighborhood.
The lake, the main feature in a park-like setting, is manicured and landscaped,
with
reeds growing in it and fish. It seemed like a good candidate for testing.
We found out, in our students words, that it was "really, really, really
gross!" Phosphorus was high, dissolved oxygen quite low and, on a lark,
we decided to use the
coliform testing equipment in our kit, not really expecting anything
because of the lake's location and appearance. To our great surprise and
disgust, the coliform test
was positive! This lake is regularly fished in and many children play
around and near it. There is a community tennis court nearby and picnic
tables and trails.
Curious and concerned, we talked to a friend who lives in the neighborhood
and reported our findings. She's getting the name of the homeowner's association
president for us to speak to. She also told us those aren't "springs"
in the lake, but machine run pipes forcing water into the lakes. We're
in the process of finding out
the the purpose of those pipes, and plan to retest the lake again this
week. The community there uses reclaimed water to water the common areas
and the students
are wondering if that might be the source of the contamination, although
our initial studies seem to suggest that reclaimed water is supposed to
be free of
contaminants of this level. We're really hoping those pipes have nothing
to do with it!
We'll keep you posted and will post our complete report next week after
our second round of testing. Also, we need to contact the test kit company
because our
nitrate sampling equipment doesn't seem to be working. We get no indication
at all of nitrates at any level and that doesn't make sense.
Onward!
Temple St. Academy
P.S. We have also volunteered with Florida Lake Watch and they will
be coming to train us for long term lake monitoring. We had planned to
monitor the "spring"
lake but will have to reevaluate things as we learn more.