Lead, Water Chemistry, and E. Coli-July 23rd

Today we performed water chemistry in our study stream and took a soil sample to determine lead levels around my home. I am very curious to get these results back because so far, my stream has been extremely healthy in the riparian habitat assessment and macroinvertebrate samples. The E. Coli test I did on the stream also came back fairly low, scoring a 50. I assume there will be fairly low levels of dissolved metals in the stream based on this data, but I do look forward to getting the results back. The lead test around my house will be extremely interesting because when my parents bought the house there were extremely dangerous levels of lead in the soil owing to lead paint, and sod was put down to try to remediate some of the toxins. The test will be very interesting to me because it will tell us whether or not the lead remediation worked.

One major change today as opposed to previous days was that there was heavy rain overnight and at noon. The stream was much more full this morning. Interestingly, the conductivity dropped significantly while temperature rose. I was thinking that  the rain would affect water chemistry results by dissolving more chemicals, but the drop in conductivity could suggest the opposite effect. The rise in temperature was somewhat expected as rainwater would have more of a chance of warming up as it runs into the stream. I was pleased to notice that the water remained visibly clear, probably owing to the fact the stream is such a small tributary and has a relatively small watershed. I noticed later in the day that larger rivers were much more murky and flooded.