Water, clean beautiful water: by Janice Denney

Water Testing
Remember all that rain this last winter and spring and how I, at least, wished it would end… ? We all have an image in our heads of beautiful clean water and what that means to us. But what does it really mean and how do we measure it? The science behind what it means to have “clean water” is a more complicated story usually because it takes money to test water, people on the ground to test water and sites that allow you access to the water to test it. Illinois Valley Soil & Water Conservation District has a dedicated water quality sampling team that we call the Water Quality Samplers. Any data points that are a snapshot in time are only as good as the number of snapshots, the variety of snapshots and the total number of snapshots over time…to give you a picture of the water that you are testing.
Say for example, you will get a different snapshot of stream quality after winter storms than you would get from testing low water summer streams. You also get different chemical fingerprints from the water based on what is flowing from upstream sources such as a farm with heavy animal stocking levels, or old septic systems that leach into the groundwater. The sampling team is measuring temperature, pH, conductivity and turbidity. Each of these aspects affects the wellbeing of the creatures drinking and living in the water, or tells us about those living conditions.
The team also collects samples that are tested for E. coli, bacteria that gets into water from the guts of mammals, for instance, when runoff carries it from human or animal poop piles or poop gets directly into the water. It is important to watch small children playing in the water and make sure they are not in the water with poopy diapers or when they need to defecate. People swimming in water that has too much E coli can get sick from swallowing that water, especially if they are young, old, sick or with an weakened immune system.
Samples are also analyzed for nitrogen and phosphorous. These elements are nutrients, and important for supporting life, but when there is too much in a given body of water, algal blooms can occur. Total Suspended Solids, or basically the amount of dirt in the water, is another measure of quality, and something the District tests for. Last summer, the E. coli levels were rarely above the safe swimming threshold. This is great news, and something our community should be proud of.
There is an app and website that SwimGuide that lets you check on the water quality of your favorite swimming hole. Enjoy the beauty of clean water in the Illinois Valley!
Check out the Illinois Valley SWCD on the following Medias:
*web – www.ivswcd.org
*Facebook – www.facebook.com/theivswcd
*Instagram – @illinoisvalleyswcd