Federation Blog

The South River Federation's Riverkeeper Tidal Water Quality montoring is in mid-season currently.  Some of you may have see us out there sampling the water quality.  I have been ask many questions about when and where we sample.  I have provided a GIS map of our current tidal stations.  I have 7 main stem stations, then 14 stations in each of the tidal creeks.  

The following is our own "Eyes Under the South River".  This comes from my weekly water quality monitoring program, therefore this is REAL data and not a model.  The graphs and interpretations are performed  by Andrew Muller, PhD USNA-Oceanography and Diana Muller, South RIVERKEERER.

This morning as I was on my way into the office and dropped my son off at his school, I quickly noticed something horrible.  The school is undergoing expansion and the rain this morning quickly showed how poor the contractor was at proper sediment and erosion control.  All of this sediment will quickly make it's way into Glebe Creek.--Diana

Second Part of the story;  I took samples as the water was freely flowing into the stormdrain by inserting my hand with a bottle to obtain a proper sample, I then processed then in a laboratory and the following in the results I obtained:

Turbidity:  437  NTU (nephlometric turbidity units),  Orthophosphate: 0.29mg/l, Nitrate: 0.21 mg/l, Nitrite, 0.083mg/l.  The maximum turbidity that should be coming off of construction site is 40, this is about 9 times higher.

Near St. George Barber Marsh in the South River on July 9, 2009 at 0830 am I came across a large algae bloom and scoped up about 30 dead catfish.

Since 4th of July the South River has had numerous "small" fish kills.  Mostly catfish and menhaden.  My question to our government is what constitutes a "real" fish kill- unless hundreds of thousands of menhaden die, then it seems that no one turns their head.  Sad.--Diana

The Sea nettles are back!!

I have read so many wives tales about what to do with the sting of a sea nettle and what to do to prevent the sting.  One of my husbands collegues actually wears panyhose before a training swim in the water to prevent a sting and another is to rub Vasoline all over to prevent the sting.  My kids have tried the Vasoline- and low and behold it works- but then the sand stick to my kids. So the excuse is they have to go back swimming.  What ever works!  Just have fun recreation responsibly in the water.

 The above picture was taken while water quality sampling under Rt50 bridge on the South River on May 29, 2009.  Notice the green-brown water color;  this happened to be a mixture of suspended sediment and an algae bloom.  The Secchi depth was only 0.2 meters or about 6 inches, meaning that sunlight could not penetrate below 1 foot.  The cause:  Stormwater runoff from the previous day's light rain bringing suspended sediment and nutrients from the headwaters (Bacon Ridge Branch and North River).   

I perform weekly water quality monitoring on the South River for dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, conductivity, water clarity, turbidity and nutrients.  Since early May I have seen a drastic drop in water clarity and dissolved oxygen, this is very disturbing considering the hot weather is not here yet- what are we going to see this summer? 

Diana

The following is a video put together by local musician Rob Levit, and accompanied by some of his great musical work.