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| A Van Dorn water sampler. This devise is used to collect deep water samples. |
All blogs and verbal advice have given my project on : Possible Surface Water Pollution from a Landfill, a good direction to follow.
The 1st & 2nd blog has taught me to stay focused on: defining the known contaminants associated with landfills, they are: "a high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and high concentrations of organic carbon, nitrogen, chloride, iron, manganese, and phenols. Many other chemicals may be present, including pesticides, solvents, and heavy metals" (Cornell Waste Management Institute). Out of what I just listed what can be tested in the lab? And then I will take Dr. Woodall’s prior suggestion -”The reason for possibly testing with depth at the point of discharge is to make sure the density of the discharge isn't so heavy that it's dropping to the river bottom which would be where you would need to sample--you need to understand the behavior of your discharge in order to properly study it.”
Already I know in the lab I can test [tracer-Salinity: surface & deep], Dissolved oxygen: surface and deep.
Fine tuning my methods:
*USGS says that within 48 hours all tests of samples need to be performed, And I know now that organic carbon samples are to be filtered to remove suspended particles.
*Just like in our chlorophyll lab the EPA recommends samples to include a measurement error which also is the deviation of a true value. (see 3-10)
More on: Identify a tracer (to take along with the known contaminates) the tracer being salinity in this case. Examples: Two samples I took at the Tomoka River and International Speedway Blvd Bridge gave me a reading of 1 ppt. and 0.5 ppt. This site is near the start of the River. Update: Further samples were taken on the Feb 27, 2015 lab trip. These sites were much closer to a source of salinity: The Ocean/ The Brackish- Indian River. A surface water sample taken at the US 1 bridge showed 2.2 ppt. Further down the river at an even closer source of salinity, a surface water sample taken had 15 ppt.
FYI: The average salinity in the ocean is 35 ppt.
And now I need to consider a possible area of “point source” pollution or consider it as a non-point source pollution.
Point Source Pollution - "Pollutant loads discharged at a specific location from pipes, outfalls, and conveyance channels from either municipal wastewater treatment plants or individual waste treatment facilities. Point sources can also include pollutant loads contributed by tributaries to the main receiving water stream or river." - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2010a
Non Point Source Pollution- Is a Wide subject most articles were from large areas, I need to fine tune this.
First--please put your name on your post! So many factors you still are not getting. Your tracer is not salinity, it would be something associated with the discharge that would, just like salinity, dilute with distance from the discharge. Also---you have mentioned many constituents that may be associated with your discharge. You will not be able to analyze for all of these, to be sure. Keeping it simple, first find out if your discharge is point-source or non-point-source. This should be simple--is the discharge coming out of a pipe or is it being leached/flooded over a larger area? Then we can discuss which constituents should be analyzed.
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