Environmental Science

We are ⅚ grade class at Chimacum Creek Elementary, each year we test our water quality in our creek

My claim is that Chimacum Creek is doing well based on our evidence and reasoning

My evidence to this is that when we water quality tested we usually got good numbers for this data, these numbers are, D.O. (dissolved oxygen) which has an average of 9.6 milligrams per liter, pH which has had an average of 6.2, temperature which has had an average of 51.3℉ , turbidity (how cloudy the water is) has had an average turbidity of 33.7 NTU’s, stream flow averaged 210 gal/s, and conductivity which has an average of 117.9 𝛍s/cm. But what do these numbers mean?

My data supports my claim because these numbers are within the range of what salmon need, let's start at the top and make our way down. The amount of D.O. required for salmon is 5-6 mg/l our average was 9 so we are plenty good for D.O. The pH required for salmon is anywhere from 6-9, although 6.2 may seem low by that judgment, pH is scaled on a logarithmic scale, which basically means that 6.2 is two times more alkaline or basic than 6, so we’re still fine. The temperature needed for salmon is from 45-70℉, why such a wide range? Well, our creek can get pretty hot in the summer and cold for the winter so that's why we have to have such a wide range, but salmon can withstand this and our average is within it so it’s also good. Turbidity is very good, there are some pictures at the bottom of this page, this picture is around our average, and this is very, very, cloudy water that we got by stirring up the silts. I doubt 300 NTU's is even possible. Typically you want things under 100 but if you get over that it's still good, 33 would be very clear water as you can see and very good for salmon. There really is no exact number for stream flow but you typically don’t want it to be fast or slow. But with some research we figured out that with the size of our creek the flow rate is good for our salmon. Conductivity is also good, anything under 200 𝛍s/cm is good, anything above 200 is called “hard water”, so our 117.9 is plenty good for fish and our creek.

I think our creek is doing well because our community has almost always done things to protect our creek, our farms have kept there fertilizers and cattle food in the farms and even now they are spending time, money and labor to add more meanders to our creek, allowing the water to slow down and fish to rest.