Examining Hach-Ammonia Nitrogen Trends in Baltimore City

Julia Alumbro

Mentor: Ciaran Harman

Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering

In Baltimore City, sanitary sewage overflows (SSO) have been a result of a faulty and outdated separated sewer system. With a series of new developmental plans, ranges of water quality parameters are subject to change depending on a location in the city. Previous research was conducted at these locations to track the water quality changes and the system’s functionality. My study aims to understand the relationship between water quality, location, and site type, using the basis of a Hach-Ammonia Nitrogen threshold of 0.3 ppm. Data from the Department of Public Works were put under statistical analysis on Python and a GIS map was developed to represent the combined data. I took into account the drainage area, type of location (i.e channel, outfall, manhole), and observational limits for the dataset. The amount of ammonia content at each location varied but was evidently the largest as the sites got closer to the Baltimore Harbor. This suggests that areas with larger and more interceptable drainages contain more extreme water quality measurements. Moreover, relationships between watershed quality vs. area are being explored to further solidify this conclusion.