The school system is working on a joint water quality testing
project with LUMCON. Biology students around Terrebonne Parish will
be taking measurements on water quality in their areas. The data
will be put into the LUMCON website for study purposes.
LUMCON Pictures: Fall
'04 - Spring '05
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There will be four items involved in this project for
our Biology II students.
1 - A LUMCON scientist will
visit the class to describe the project and testing methods.
2 - The class will take a field
trip to LUMCON for water testing and a tour.
3 - The class will take water
quality measurements several times during the course and will post the
results at the LUMCON website.
4 - Each student will write
a 4-page report on water quality and an analysis of data as required by
the instructor. |
Water quality is defined by analyzing it in terms of its:
1.Chemical Content: Hardness
(calcium + magnesium), Metals (iron etc), nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus),
chloride, sodium, organic compounds, etc.
2.Physical Content: Turbidity,
colour, odour, etc.
3.Biological Content:
Fecal coliform, total coliform, viruses, etc.
One major area where water quality testing is critical
is in the area of drinking water. Since our drinking water is pulled
from sources beyond Terrebonne Parish, that is not the focus of our testing
project.
| Our study is of environmental
water quality around Terrebonne Parish, which is part of the Barataria
Terrebonne Estuary. An estuary is where salty gulf water blends
into bayous & lakes of fresh water. It is influenced by weather,
sediment deposit, flora, and fauna. It has also been influenced by
human forces. Levees, canals, and water traffic have altered
the natural progression of this area's ecology ... increasing the effect
of things such as salt water intrusion. Many studies show our parish
losing land so that Houma will be ocean-front property within decades.
This study should be beneficial for the long term future of the land, flora,
fauna, and human elements of Terrebonne Parish. |
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So, what will we be measuring? There are dozens
of water quality measurements that can be done. We are only doing
a few of them. We will take 3 measurements of surface level water
and the same 3 measurements at a deeper level (along with air temperature
and the depth of the second sample).
1 - measure the air temperature
2 - record qualitative observations (i.e. weather)
3 - take a surface sample of water and measure: water temperature (Celsius),
salinity (ppt), and dissolved oxygen (ppm)
4 - take a sample over a meter
deep and measure the same items
5 - record the depth at which
the deeper sample was collected (in cm) |
Equipment:
We are hoping to get a set of
pocket computers in the future to use for measuring, but for now we'll
be using more traditional equipment. The instructor will have one
pocket computer and it will be used for some sample measurements.
Other than that, we will be using the following.
Thermometer - standard
thermometer for measure air and water temperature
in Celsius
Refractometer - used
to measure salinity
(salt level) of the water in parts per thousand (ppt)
Dissolved Oxygen Kit
- multi-step chemical test to determine dissolved
oxygen in the water in parts per million (ppm); we'll be using the
LaMotte
kit |
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