Summary of Brush Creek Water Quality Monitoring

Objectives

• To finalize data sheets for submittal to the Missouri Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program.
• To prepare summary data sheets to be posted in lab.
• To learn more about the history and the public perception of degraded water quality in Brush Creek.

Activities

• Transfer all data collected in the field and lab to new datasheets (visual stream survey, water chemistry, stream discharge, macroinvertebrate counts, fecal coliform testing).
• Complete data sheets by filling in any blanks:
• find out what the total precipitation was for week preceding field sampling
• convert stream depths measured in the field from feet/inches to feet/tenths of a foot
• calculate stream discharge based on measurements made in the field.
• Prepare summary data sheets by entering data into the Excel spreadsheet provided.
• Read articles from the Kansas City Star concerned with water quality issues regarding Brush Creek

Outline

• Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Data Sheets
• Visual Stream Survey Checklist
• Water Chemistry Summary Sheet
• Stream Discharge Worksheet
• Macroinvertebrate Counts
• Fecal Coliform Data Sheet
• Excel spreadsheet summary
• Kansas City Star articles regarding Brush Creek
• Go to Land Use Module

Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Data Sheets

Your T.A. will provide each group with a new set of data sheets for each group to fill out. For the most part, this will simply entail transferring data from your old data sheets onto these new ones. But it will also entail filling in a few blanks with new data or with data based on calculations that you and your group still need to make. Please fill these data sheets out neatly and carefully as we will be submitting them to the volunteer water quality monitoring program of the Missouri Department of Conservation and Department of Natural Resources.

1) Visual Stream Survey Checklist

You and your group should've collected most of the data for this data sheet during the lab session you spent along Brush Creek.  You need, however, to find out how much precipitation fell on Kansas City during the 7-day period that preceded the day your group went to Brush Creek to monitor its water chemistry; you can get this information from the following web site:  http://www.wdaftv4.com/wathisyr.html).  Be sure to fill out the following:
 

2) Water Chemistry Summary Sheet

Once again, you and your group should've collected most of the data for this data sheet during the lab session you spent along Brush Creek.  And once again you need to fill out a blank sheet stating how much precipitation fell on Kansas City during the 7-day period that preceded your group's trip to Brush Creek.  Fill out the following:
 

3) Stream Discharge Worksheet

On this sheet, you'll need to do several calculations in order to determine what the discharge of Brush Creek was when you and your group were in the field.  Also, be sure to fill out the top of the worksheet as you have the previous two, with the following information:
 

Calculating stream discharge:

• Convert depth measurements from inches to tenths of a foot (you measured the depth of Brush Creek in inches). Do this by dividing your depth measurement by 12. (E.g., a depth of 15 inches is equal to 1.25 feet (1.25 = 15/12)
• Determine the average depth of Brush Creek at your site by doing the following:
• add together all your depth measurements
• divide this total by the number of depth measurements you and your group made across the stream -- this gives you the average depth of the stream at your monitoring site
• Determine the cross-sectional area of the creek at your monitoring site
• multiply the creek's average depth by the width of the steam
• Determine the average velocity of Brush Creek at your site:
• if you measured how long it took an orange (or some other object) to float down the creek over a prespecified distance more than once, add together all your measurements (in seconds)
• divide this total by the number of times you floated an orange (or whatever else) down Brush Creek -- this gives you the average float time at your monitoring site
• then, divide the distance that your object floated by the average float time -- this gives you the average velocity of Brush Creek at your site
• making note of the stream-bottom conditions at your site, select a correction value
• multipy the average velocity by this correction value to get a corrected average stream velocity
• Determine the discharge of Brush Creek at you monitoring site:
• multiply the cross-sectional area of the stream by the corrected average stream velocity -- this will give you stream discharge in cubic feet per second.

NOTE: If discharge was too low to measure, make a note saying so on the data sheet.

4) Macroinvertebrate Counts

If you didn't complete the Macroinvertebrate Count sheet last week, you'll need to do so today:
 

• add together the number of  sensitive macroinvertebrates you found in each set, and put the total number in the box at the bottom of the SENSITIVE column on the data sheet.  Muliply this number by 3 and put the resulting number on the blank line provided.
• add together the number of  somewhat-sensitive macroinvertebrates you found in each set, and put the total number in the box at the bottom of the SOMEWHAT-SENSITIVE column on the data sheet.  Muliply this number by 2 and put the resulting number on the blank line provide
• add together the number of tolerant macroinvertebrates you found and counted in each set, and put the total number in the box at the bottom of the TOLERANT column on the data sheet.  Muliply this number by 1 and put the resulting number on the blank line provided
• finally, add the values for the sensitive, somewhat-sensitive, and tolerant macroinvertebrates together, and using this number, assign a WATER QUALITY RATING to Brush Creek

5) Fecal Coliform Data Sheet

In completing this form, provide the required information at the top:

• stream name
• county
• volunteers' names (include your T.A.'s name and the name of everyone who was in the group)
• date
• precipitation for preceding seven days (http://www.wdaftv4.com/wathisyr.html)
• monitoring site number
• township-range location
• date and time when incubation started and when it finished
• answer "Y" or "N" to indicate whether colonies were or were not present on the positive control (the one someone coughed on) and on the negative control (the sample of purified water)

Next, fill out the table part of the data sheet. Provide the following information:

• the monitoring site number
• the time when the sample was collected by your T.A.
• the water temperature at the time the sample was collected
• the air temperature at the time the sample was collected
• the number of colonies that you and your groupmates counted after your samples had incubated for 24 hours
• the number of colones per 100 ml (to determine this, multiply the number of colonies you counted by the dilution multiplier)
• the selected value (i.e., the one that falls clearly within the range where the analytical certainty of this test is the highest)

Excel Spreadsheet Summary

For the next part of this lab, each water-monitoring group is to compile onto one sheet all of the information its members obtained during the study of Brush Creek's water quality.  (Use the group designation that was given by your T.A.)  The sheet to be filled out is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet for each group is on a different specific computer -- your T.A. will direct you to the computer where your group will find its spreadsheet.  Locate the Module 13 folder on the computer desktop, open it, and double-click on the Excel workbook icon that is labeled with the appropriate time, day, and group designation.  Then enter the appropriate information the first page of the spreadsheet, print the page out, and put it up on the poster board that is assigned to your lab section.  Also, make a few pie charts of data in the visual survey (e.g. floodplain land use and riparian cover), and a column chart of your group's fecal coliform data to illustrate how colony counts varied with variations in the amounts of sample water filtered.  (If you need help with creating charts in Excel, ask your T.A.  You should also read the "Creating charts in Excel" document  -- to do this, double-click on the appropriate icon in the Module 13 folder.)   Next, obtain water chemistry data from the other groups in your lab and enter this data into the table on the second page of your spreadsheet.  Make a few column charts of this data to illustrate the degree to which water chemistry measurements varied from group to group.  As you do this, try to think of some possible reasons why measurements of water chemistry would vary between the different groups.

Kansas City Star Newspaper Reports

The quality of Brush Creek's water is a major concern in the Kansas City metro area. It is a particular concern since the city recently spent many millions of dollars in an attempt to turn the creek into an urban park that would help attract people from all over the metro area and beyond into the urban core. So what is the public perception of the new Brush Creek? And what is the reality? Navigate to the Kansas City Star archive collection, and do a search using the search words "brush creek." Read some of the articles and you will get an idea of the problems and issues surrounding Brush Creek. The following list includes several articles related to Brush Creek from 1991 through 1997 that give a good overview of the stream and various concerns confronting it: