From the pages of this week's Quest:
Reed Canyon--how safe is the water?
This year's Bio 101 class performed tests to determine whether the canyon water would be classified as safe to drink or recreate in under EPA criteria. The normal criteria is that no more than 126 coliforms should be found in 100 milliliters of water in order for freshwater to be categorized as safe for recreation and 0 coliforms are allowed for drinking water. This year the average number of coliforms was 4680 per 100 millileters. This determines that the Reed water is NOT safe to drink, a big surprise, nor is it safe to recreate in. So the low-down is you shouldn't really be doing anything in the canyon besides walking on the trails.
The results this year were rather surprising, since the average number of coliforms per 100/ml last year was 795, and the year before 1089. However, during our testing this year there was heavy rain and a day of snow, which can account for the contamination that might have come from storm/sewage run-off. It should be noted that similar levels of coliforms have been detected in sampling sites within the Johnson Creek Watershed by the City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services.
Students also did an additional test for E. coli, and the majority of students did detect E. coli, indicating fecal contamination. However, this is not only limited to the possibility of human feces, but the feces of other animals as well. This contamination seems to be spread out evenly over the entire canyon, since students took samples from all around Reed Lake. This indicates that the main source of contamination might be the spring, since it has a continuous flow into the canyon from the east.
-Cadence True, Isabel Gabel, Lindsey Maser
BIO 101 Fall '03
- posted by Niels
Reed Canyon--how safe is the water?
This year's Bio 101 class performed tests to determine whether the canyon water would be classified as safe to drink or recreate in under EPA criteria. The normal criteria is that no more than 126 coliforms should be found in 100 milliliters of water in order for freshwater to be categorized as safe for recreation and 0 coliforms are allowed for drinking water. This year the average number of coliforms was 4680 per 100 millileters. This determines that the Reed water is NOT safe to drink, a big surprise, nor is it safe to recreate in. So the low-down is you shouldn't really be doing anything in the canyon besides walking on the trails.
The results this year were rather surprising, since the average number of coliforms per 100/ml last year was 795, and the year before 1089. However, during our testing this year there was heavy rain and a day of snow, which can account for the contamination that might have come from storm/sewage run-off. It should be noted that similar levels of coliforms have been detected in sampling sites within the Johnson Creek Watershed by the City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services.
Students also did an additional test for E. coli, and the majority of students did detect E. coli, indicating fecal contamination. However, this is not only limited to the possibility of human feces, but the feces of other animals as well. This contamination seems to be spread out evenly over the entire canyon, since students took samples from all around Reed Lake. This indicates that the main source of contamination might be the spring, since it has a continuous flow into the canyon from the east.
-Cadence True, Isabel Gabel, Lindsey Maser
BIO 101 Fall '03
- posted by Niels
