Environmental Science
pH in Chimacum Creek
This is the pH poster that Lillian and I used for presenting at the Youth Summit.
They's creatures are called benthic macros or bottom feeders. We got to examine these when NOSC brought them in. NOSC captured them from HJ Carroll park.
This is a list of all of the benthic macros that we found.
This is Lillian and I testing the pH in the Chimacum Creek
In the beginning of the year we went fish trapping to see if there were any fish swimming through our creek.
We started off the 2nd semester with 6 parameters to choose from and one of them being pH, which is the one that my partner, Lillian and I picked.
My claim is that based on the evidence that we got from the 6 parameters that we tested, I would say that our creek has potentially good water. We know this because when we tested the water we found nothing abnormal in the water and the pH was in a range from 5-7 on the pH scale. The only thing that was abnormal was that we tested a 7 which is suppose to be pure, clean water and we know that our creek does not have pure water flowing through it.
My data to support my claim is that the pH range for salmon to survive is in between 6-9. Our data shows that our water is ranged from 5-7 on the pH scale. Another thing is that pH is also affected by things like streamflow and water temperature. The average for streamflow this year was 210 gallons per second, and the water temperature was 51.3 degrees fahrenheit. If the temperature in the creek rises then it causes the pH to go down and get more acidic, the same thing happens if the streamflow goes up.
I think that we have potentially good water because we have a community that cares about our watershed and protects it from animals and other things that would pollute the water like trash and oils. We should still keep doing water quality even though we know that our community is taking care of it because there is still sulfur dioxide in the that is coming off of plants and if it mixes with the moisture in the atmosphere then it will cause the water to become more acidic and if it becomes to acidic then fish and benthic macros will die.