Murky Waters (An introduction)
The project of the Murky Waters group is a study of the impact of the newly formed dog park on the creek in, near, and around Sweat mountain park. We are studying how distance from the dogpark effects E. coli and fecal coliform levels. We have decided to use the product Coliscan gel for our testing procedures.
On our first testing day we decided on four testing sites labled 1, 2, 3, and 4. Test sight 1 is located at the source of the Sweat Mountain Park end of the creek. Test sight 2 is located in a ditch nearest the dog park. Test sight 3 is located near a clear fast running section of the creek. Test sight 4 is located at a murky and usually polluted looking sight on the creek.
Our first testing Day went well. Test sight four was looking very unclean yet when we checked it's results it had one of the lesser coliform levels. The creek appeared to be at an average level with no serious rain within the last couple days. When pouring one of the solutions from the water into a petri dish we poured it into the wrong side causing the results of one test to be useless.
Question to ponder: Alatoona lake is very down compared to what it usually is yet it seems that the creek is unaffected. Why?
Testing Day two went well too. We had slight trouble remebering which test sight was which but we figured it out. Testing site four no longer looked so polluted but we hypothesized that this was due to heavy rain the previous days. When arriving back at the class room to prepare the solutions, however we discovered that we had not recorded how much water we had used last time. After some thought we deciede we had used three milileters and finished preparing our solutions. We have not recieved the results yet.