Research: Water Quality Testing
The testing of
water quality is important because we actually don’t have a really good
understanding of what ‘normal’ environmental conditions are in Puget
Sound. We talk about it getting ‘worse’ but we need to know what water
quality conditions regularly are before we can see if they are changing.
Highline faculty and students are actively monitoring water quality in
the community. The monitoring project is Highline’s way of raising
public awareness of water quality issues influencing Puget Sound and the
streams flowing into it. Water quality programs are integrated into many
of our Highline classes now that the MaST Center allows students easy
access to the water and monitoring equipment. The monitoring program has
expanded to include students in Marine Biology, Oceanography,
Environmental Science, and other related courses. This enables Highline
to expose more than 400 students per year to direct hands-on activities
relating to water quality.
Data is gathered at least twice per week during the academic year.
Our Marine Monitoring Program includes taking data from Poverty Bay
in the Puget Sound at the Highline MaST Center. Stream monitoring
sites include Des Moines Creek, McSorley Creek, and the Redondo
outfall.
Puget Sound Data collected at the MaST Center includes:
YSI
Sonde Water Quality Monitoring Data 2006 (Excel):
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Water Temperature
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Salinity
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Conductivity
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pH
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Oxidation Reduction Potential
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Dissolved Oxygen
-
Secchi Disk (vertical water
visibility)
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Plankton Composition: common
phytoplankton (centric diatoms vs. chain diatoms) and
zooplankton
Stream Data may include:
-
Water Temperature
-
pH
-
Oxidation Reduction Potential
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Dissolved Oxygen
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Flow Rate
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Turbidity
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Dissolved Nutrients (Nitrogen,
Phosphorous)
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Fecal Coliform (bacterial load)
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Toxicity Bioassays (determines
water toxicity using water fleas (Daphnia sp.) as an indicator
Last updated:
April 16, 2007
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