Bronx River Education

Training March 29th,2008

March 30, 2008

            On Saturday, March 29^th 2008, The Bronx River Alliance in conjunction with GLOBE held what I considered tot be a rather successful Water Quality Monitoring training. The Alliance worked out the logistics of invitations and materials, Rocking the Boat provided the space at Hunts Point Riverside Park and some much appreciated labor, and Peter Schmidt from Queens College, ran the show for GLOBE.

All told, 18 participants, ranging from a couple of  new volunteers that have never done water quality testing, to several pros that could tell you the quantity of DO in a water sample with one hand tied behind their backs,  took part in the training, but something new was learned by all. Organizations represented were Rocking the Boat ( which included VOICE members?), Green Apple Corps, Action at the Point, The Bronx Zoo, and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice. Peter walked us through not only the reasons that we test water, but also the procedures necessary to making sure your data has some meaning to you and the larger scientific community.  To demonstrate this, all of the participants were given thermometers and asked to go outside to “take the temperature.” As they came in, Peter collected the data on the board. The temps ranged from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to “Medium rare,” even though the Weather Underground claims it was about 48 degrees Fahrenheit at the time. The point was well made that you need to use the right tool  and have a standard by which to compare your data.

            For standards, we used the following for temperature and Dissolved Oxygen. A simple ice bath at sea level should give you a reading of 0 degrees Celsius. Make sure that you keep the thermometer in the water for three minutes and stir it. Water being the only substance that freezes from the top down, missing that stir will give you about a 4 degree difference. For DO, we made a saturated (100%) solution by simply filling a small bottle half way, capping it and the shaking it like mad for about five minutes. This mimics waterfalls were the O₂ mixes with the H₂O.  When you run your titration, it should come out to about 100% saturated if all is working correctly.

            The two new protocols introduced were the use of transparency tubes and hydrometers. These are GLOBE protocols that allow us to input this data onto the GLOBE database. The transparency tube is easier and faster than  the turbidity test that we had been doing as Bronx River Stewards.  The hydrometer is used to find specific gravity of water which is then converted into salinity when cross referenced with temperature.

            Soon all Bronx River Stewards will have access to the Alliance’s GLOBE site where data can be entered and accessed by all. Peter walked everybody through that process at the close of our day, as well as demonstrating the amazing resource that the GLOBE web site ( see our links) is for scientists, teachers and students.

            I’d like to thank everybody that participated and everybody that had a hand in making the training come off as well as it did. We started early, ran late ( thanks for washing dishes, Rosa and Kathryn!)  a covered miles of material. Thanks Peter for making the trip and we  hope to have you back soon( Bring the owls and the snakes) for more training and hopefully a canoe trip.

DG

Entry Filed under: Water Quality Monitoring. .