Georgia Wildlife Federation

Georgia Wildlife Federation volunteers have monitored Cornish Creek at the Alcovy Conservation Center, in Covington, Georgia since 1995. In September 2006 the GWF entered into a contract with Newton County to monitor ten stream sites across the county, using the Adopt-a-Stream protocol. When these sites were selected and registered with the states Adopt-a-Stream program it was discovered that these sites represent the run off from over 43% of the counties land area.
With the exception of some local area that may be going directly into one of the larger rivers in the county such as the Alcovy, Yellow and South River, we can determine the quality of the stream buffers and the quality of the water flowing thru Newton County. The GWF volunteers test the selected sites chemically every month (temperature, dissolved oxygen, ph, settleable solids) biologically (identification of macro invertebrates) every three months and an occasional visual survey to check for significant changes that may have occurred over time. One of our simple chemical tests is a conductivity test. Conductivity is a measure of the ability of water to pass an electrical current. Once a baseline or consistent number has been determined an increase or decrease from the number should warrant further investigation within the streams watershed.

Table 1: Stream Conductivity

Can you tell which streams are urban and which are rural? Dried Indian and Snapping Shoals are both urban streams that receive a lot of storm water runoff from parking lots and there is less protected buffer. The conductivity meter tales us there is more suspended particles and certainly more chance of pollution.

Another test that is easy to show on a graph is the relation of water temperature to dissolved oxygen. Colder water holds more oxygen.

* Water temp in Celsius *Oxygen in ppm

Notice the measurements taken in the in the first five months of 2007 at the Cornish Creek sample site. Cornish Creek held more oxygen in January and February but by the beginning of March the water temperature was moving upward and the oxygen amount was falling. Dissolved oxygen below 3 ppm are stressful to most aquatic organisms. Levels of 5 ppm and up are required for activity and good growth.

Biological water sampling can be a lot of fun. The youngsters always enjoy being in the water and they are great at locating the small invertebrates. Certain invertebrates have no tolerance for pollution. If these invertebrates are present in your sampling then you can be assured you have good water quality and a stream habitat that will allow for their life cycles.

If you are interested or concerned about your local water quality join the Georgia Wildlife Federation and help with the Adopt-a-Stream program.