Discussion

1. 1. Water quality testing is a critical activity in environmental monitoring due to the influence of vegetation and naturally occurring elements. Generally, poor-quality water affects both the surrounding ecosystem and aquatic life. Significant relationships are found to exist among water quality parameters. For example, the conductivity vs. pH shows that strong acid causes a higher conductivity as compared to a strong base. At the same time, transparency is affected by the absorption characteristic of dissolved and particulate matters in water including effects of biological pollutants (Publications & Data, n.d.). Furthermore, increasing the temperature, for instance, rises photosynthesis of aquatic plant which affects alkalinity of water and increases overall pH (Publications & Data, n.d.). Equally, the alkalinity influences the hardness of water. For example, high alkaline water is undesirable because of its hardness.
2. Based on this lab, the Iron seems to have the most significant relationship with water pH. For example, while conductivity has R² = 0.5163, Iron has R² = 0.6627, showing a stronger relationship between the iron concentration and pH. Thus, iron is the quality parameter that tends to determine the impairment of a stream in the Cheat watershed according to results on the curves on sheet “Water “Chemistry Relationships” in the excel.
3. In this lab, the assessment of the water Dunkard Creek near Pentress shows that the water quality is good and almost meets the requirements for many uses. Indeed, there are pollution contributions due to metallic concentration possibly due to agricultural runoff (sediment) as well as malfunctioning on-lot sewage systems throughout the watershed. However, the effect of these pollutants has minimal impairment impacts. The WVSCI for Dunkard Creek is 61.07 (as shown in the excel sheet “WV SCI Calculation”), which is lower compared to the streams from the Cheat basin.
4. The Rapid Bio-Assessment Protocols are designed as screening methods to evaluate if stream water is impaired. However, the Protocols can also be applicable in other assessments such as Characterizing the existence and severity of contaminant to the water resource, identifying causes of the contamination as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the control systems. On the other hand, Chemical analytical techniques of water quality determine the presence and concentration of substances such as nutrients, metals, and pesticides. Therefore, the scope biological system is more comprehensive and reliable in a stream quality evaluation

References

Publications & Data. (n.d.). Water quality parameter definitions. EPA, South Australia. Retrieved from https://www.epa.sa.gov.au/data_and_publications/water_quality_monitoring/lower_lakes/lower_lakes_water_quality_parameters