by Roy Mayeda • C-T River Watch adviser
Published/Last Modified on Monday, October 26, 2009 10:08 AM CDT
Campbell-Tintah River Watch students were out in the rain this past Wednesday, testing water quality in the Rabbit River drainage. New members Dylan Hensch, Alex Viger and Taylor Wiertzema joined veteran members Jacob Hunstable and Ben Walkup gathering information at 10 locations. The newcomers learned quickly, each showing different talents. Hensch was very physical, getting down into the streams to sample. Viger developed the timing to successfully sample swiftly moving water. Wiertzema learned to coordinate data gathering and recording.
“It’s good to see some younger students joining the group,” said Roy Mayeda, Campbell-Tintah science teacher and adviser to the group. “The monitoring procedures have to be carefully followed, so it’s an advantage to get and keep students involved for as long as possible.”
This monitoring session was a special opportunity to measure the effects of rainfall on water quality in the area. Water running through most areas was noticeable more turbid (cloudy/muddy) than usual. Areas near plowed fields without filter strips (areas of undisturbed grasses and brush) were most affected. A few locations fed by filter strips still had extremely clear water, despite the surface run-off from the storm and the faster river flow. Turbidity has been pointed out by the Bois de Sioux Watershed Management District (BdSWMD) as a major issue in the Rabbit River area, as well as being a major concern in the entire Red River Basin area. BdSWMD will incorporate River Watch data into their assessment of the water quality issues in the area, and the effectiveness of solutions.
The group is still investigating differences in conductivity (indicating dissolved materials) and turbidity in the area, as well as continuing to monitor temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, and pH (acidity/alkalinity). They hope to again present an update on their findings to other River Watch students at the River Watch Forum in March 2010, as well as to the BdSWMD Board of Directors later in the spring. The team will sample once more in November, barring an early ice-up, then resume sampling in April.
