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Improving Water Quality: Community Service Project

Engage in a project to enhance water quality by addressing pollution sources like industrial waste, sewage, and runoff. Monitor temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, E. coli levels, stream biology, and habitat for insights on stream health. Identify concerns and plan actionable steps for stream protection and improvement.

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Improving Water Quality: Community Service Project

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  1. Community Service Project

  2. Activity 1: Planning and Completing Your Community Service Project

  3. In order to improve water quality:

  4. Pollution can come from many different sources: • Industrial waste pipes • Household sewage • Farming of crops or livestock • Lawn fertilizers or pesticides • Litter • And, anything that results in pollution on the ground that can be washed off by rains and stormwater runoff.

  5. Let’s Consider Temperature! • Were your readings: • Good? Fair? Poor? • If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • Parking lot or street runoff • Lack of streambank trees (riparian canopy cover) • Hydropower cooling water or other industrial discharge to stream

  6. Let’s Consider Dissolved Oxygen! • Were your readings: • Good? Fair? Poor? • If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • Algae in the creek • Lack of shade/warm water • Low flows with few riffles • A lot of organic matter (leaves, twigs, grass clippings, manure or sewage!)

  7. Let’s consider pH! • Were your readings: • Good? Fair? Poor? • If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • pH too low, < 6 (acidic)? • Acid rain • Mining runoff • pH too high, > 9 (basic)? • Limestone bedrock • Concrete parking lot, sidewalks, etc.

  8. Let’s Consider Turbidity! • Were your readings: • Good? Fair? Poor? • If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • Soil erosion from: • Streambanks • Construction sites • Farmland (bare crop fields) • Algae • Sewage/manure

  9. Let’s Consider E. coli! Were your readings: Good? Fair? Poor? If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • Human sewage • Broken sewer line, overflowing sewer • Failing septic system • Straight pipe • Livestock manure from pasture or feedlots • Pet waste • Wildlife

  10. How was the stream biology? Were your readings: Good? Fair? Poor? If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • Poor stream chemistry (dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, turbidity) • Poor habitat conditions • Other unknown pollutants (heavy metals, chemicals, petroleum/oil, etc.) Image: https://www.fondriest.com/

  11. How was the stream habitat? Were your readings: Good? Fair? Poor? If fair or poor, what might be causing those conditions? • Development close to stream • Narrow riparian buffer • Not enough trees and shrubs for shading and streambank habitat • High turbidity • Livestock trampling of streambanks • Stream straightening • Streambank erosion Buckhorn Creek, Breathitt County

  12. What are the water quality concerns for your adopted stream?

  13. Developing a Project Idea • Key Questions: • What can be done to improve or protect the stream? • What do we need to plan and implement our project? • Who can we ask to help? • Plan out a schedule with project tasks. • Complete the Community Project Tracking Form.

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