Here is the blog-posted summary of conditions from this month’s water quality testing by Diana Muller, South River Keeper, and Americorps-person Jennifer Carr (see the Washington Post for 27 November, Metro Section) on the South River.
Maybe water clarity was degraded by tannins in the water from decomposing leaves?
[Note that this summary does some violence to the fine-scale resolution of the hundreds of sample points that represent Diana’s sampling scheme (0.1 meter vertical resolution for each of 19 sampling sites the length of the tidewater portions of the river and major tributaries). It is that fine scale sampling and detailed analysis of the results that’s permitting Diana and the several scientists working with her (including of course Dr. Andrew Muller, her husband, at the Naval Academy) who are changing our fundamental picture of the pollution-causing and mitigating role of small estuarine rivers in the mid-Bay.]
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Nov 29
2010
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The surface and bottom salinity profiles show a direct influence of “fresher” water at the toward the headwaters of the South River, verses the more saline water at the mouth of the River. The average water temperature was 50°, pH 7.2, Dissolved Oxygen 10 mg/l, Water Clarity 0.8m – still does not meet the criteria of 1 meters.
–Diana
Potter's Weal 