[USGS CoreCast Introduction]
[Steven Sobieszczyk] Hello and Welcome.
This is the USGS CoreCast, I’m Steven
Sobieszczyk. In this episode of the
CoreCast we are actually going to be
rebroadcasting a previously released
video from the USGS Oregon Science
Podcast. We figured the topic of water
quality, as discussed in the video, was
representative of the hydrologic
research that the USGS, as a whole, does
around that country. Therefore, it fit
in really well with other CoreCast
products. So, without further ado, this
is, “What’s in Our Water?”
[Intro Music begins]
[Steven Sobieszczyk] Water. Such a
simple molecule. Just two hydrogen atoms
and one oxygen. Small. Innocuous. Yet
when combined with countless others, it
has the power to reshape the entire
planet. One of the basic building blocks
of life, water is much is more than just
a simple liquid. Entrained in water is a
whole world of microscopic materials.
Sediment. Organisms. Dissolved minerals.
Even harmful chemicals. In this episode,
we are going to investigate more than
just the substance - water. We are going
to examine what is in our nations’
water, how we at the U.S. Geological
Survey monitor it, and what tools we
have developed to aid those who want to
explore more about our planet’s most
abundant resource. This is…the USGS
Oregon Science Podcast.
[Steven Sobieszczyk] The term “water
quality” covers a vast range of physical
and chemical traits of water. It can
refer to any number of characteristics
of water, such as dissolved or
particulate matter trapped in the water
column. This may include materials like
dissolved minerals (sodium and
potassium, for example) or suspended
particles like organic carbon (which is
basically broken down leaf litter or
other decomposing organic matter) or
fine-grained sediment (such as dirt
washed away from hillsides). In
addition, those who investigate water
quality may be interested in other water
properties like acidity or conductivity.
Or, in the case of greatest concern for
most people, pollution. To help simplify
this potentially overwhelming subject of
water quality, we will focus on
conditions in local streams here in Oregon.
[Stewart Rounds] So living here in the
Pacific Northwest, we really are blessed
with some great water resources. We have
wonderful streams and lakes. Although,
there are some places where people say,
“I wouldn’t want to swim or fish in that
river! Oh, it’s disgusting!” You know,
let’s think about this problem with a
little bit of perspective. Back in the
1930s and 40s, boy, the Willamette was
an open sewer. But, there was a big
cleanup that happened in the 1940s and
as we understand, a little bit more
about some of the types of water-quality
problems there were successive cleanups.
There was another big cleanup in the
1970s and the 1990s. So, today, you can
go swimming in the Willamette River. You
can go fishing in the Willamette River
and it’s really in pretty good condition.
[Steven Sobieszczyk] Dr. Stewart Rounds
is the USGS Water Quality Specialist in
Oregon. As with most hydrologists,
Stewart has always had a passion for water.
[Stewart Rounds] You know, water quality
has always been something that has
interested me. Ever since I was a kid, I
wanted to know how things work. And I
look at a river and I want to know more
about it. I want to know where the water
comes from, how good the water quality
is, whether it’s good for fish, what its
carrying, where it’s going to, how
things change… Understanding processes
in natural systems, it’s just fascinating.
[Steven Sobieszczyk] Dr. Round’s
research focuses on water-quality
monitoring of rivers and lakes,
including water temperature, nutrient
transport, and water-related concerns
due to algae. What types of problems do
algae cause in our local rivers?
Well…that all depends on how much algae there is.
[Stewart Rounds] So, algae is an
important thing that we study and it’s
not entirely a bad thing, right? Algae
is the base of the food chain. If we
didn’t have algae than we wouldn’t have
anything for the zooplankton to eat. And
if the zooplankton didn’t eat anything
than we wouldn’t have any food for the
fish. And if we don’t have fish, well,
you can take it from there. So algae is
good in many ways because it’s the base
of the food chain. On the other had we
don’t want too much of a good thing
because then it can lead to pH levels
that are too high, which is not good for
fish. Or when the algae are no longer
growing, they can use up too much oxygen
and cause problems that way.
[Steven Sobieszczyk] Algae is just one
of many parameters, or characteristics,
of water quality that the USGS monitors.
Other parameters commonly measured
include water temperature, pH (or
acidity), and turbidity (which is the
cloudiness or dirtiness of water). All
of these data are collected and stored
online in our National Water Information
System, or NWIS, database. The water
quality data are free, and can be
accessed through the NWIS website, or
through the online software package, USGS Data Grapher.
[Stewart Rounds] So the data grapher is
set of online tools that allow users to
create customized graphs and tables of a
whole variety of time-series data that
are served up by the U.S. Geological
Survey. Let’s start by looking at a time
series graph from one site. In this
example, let’s take a look at some pH
data from the Clackamas River near the
mouth of that river at Oregon City. The
results show you some of the inputs that
you ask for and the graph, and you can
see that the pH values in mid-summer can
reach relatively high values near 9, and
that the patterns in pH decrease when
the streamflow goes up. Another way to
visualize those patters in the pH data
in the Clackamas River is to use a color
map. The color map shows some
interesting patterns that we saw in the
time series graph. We had higher pH
values at particular times in the spring
and summer and we had lower pH values
for a time between those peaks when the
discharge was higher.
[Steven Sobieszczyk] As part of its
overall mission, the USGS measures the
quantity and quality of the nation’s
waters. This work is completed through
the use of a network of over 7,000
streamflow gages. In Oregon alone, there
are over 200 streamflow monitoring
locations, many of which also
continuously monitor different water-
quality properties. Each year,
scientists, like Dr. Rounds, continue to
observe lakes and rivers, and through
new tools they develop, help explore how
water quality changes in the world
around us. For more on what the USGS is
doing through its National Water Quality
Assessment Program or through other
cooperative programs in the state,
please visit our water resources
information website at usgs.gov/water.