Chapter 181
5/29/2008
Ch 181 A Place in the Sun
serving the public
Mohawk River Sunrise July 1978
Water Quality Survey picture folder
Perhaps this picture best represents or is the way I want to remember the 30 plus years I put in with the NYSDEC.
At the NYSDEC we were responsible for achieving good water quality under the leadership of Bill Berner. I assisted Jeff Schmitt here on the 19 foot Boston Whaler leaving port near Latham before sunrise to take water samples. We would construct and calibrate a mathematical water quality model from the data to allocate allowable wasteloads for dischargers and maintain stream standards. On this run, I believe we went up through the locks as far as Amsterdam and didn't return till after sunset.
crew mate Clark Alden passed away last week 2008
video notes:
50 Wolf Rd NYSDEC HQ
DO demo Winkler method - Clark Alden, Dick Draper, Kevin Walters, George Harris, Ron Macomber, Steve Hammond
add 2ml of manganese sulfate to 300ml glass BOD sample bottle below meniscus
take special care when you get to the sulfuric acid
off like a herd of turtles Jeff Schmitt takes note of scenery
colorimetric pH analysis before dawn in Mohawk River
Whaler at speed with 70hp Chrysler Force
sunrise
sunrise 2
on breaks, time for some fishing
outboarding
buoy 18A north side of 12deep shipping channel (red on the right when you return from the sea) of Erie Canal- below Twin Bridges
fixed sample ready for 100ml titration
passing DOT tug with barge full of pipes for hydraulic dredging operation
going through various locks on Mohawk
titrate with sodium thiosulfate solution till iodide solution goes clear to determine dissolved oxygen in sample- fish want high DO, dead at zero
working thru darkness to accomplish the mission
Peconic Estuary, Long Island
with gulls
Peconic Flanders Bay sandbar
survey boat
Riverhead samples taken before sunrise
Zero DO
clear sample after chemical fixation - bad duck waste, benthic oxygen demand, salinity stratification, high algae, high nitrogen, eutrophication, excess municipal loading
Jellyfish, I noticed they were real sensitive to just one drop of sulfuric acid
Jelly
clam boat, maybe some scallops
Steve Hammond exit Great South Bay through Shinecock Inlet
open waters
Atlantic Ocean, mansions
mansion
mansion
Tony Karwiel on midnight run in Great South Bay to Reynolds Channel
Clark Alden with samples taken, appears to be ready for the Disco we docked up to
Niagara River
Tonawanda Creek, critical condition for DO was considered to be in winter for the Amherst SD #16 until my survey showed otherwise
DO bucket
back at the office
new 625 Broadway HQ