The EPA’s Guideline for Orthophosphate is : 0.01 mg/L
and this is what I found!
Conclusion
According to these findings, both the areas of the cow pastures and
landfill are over the EPA guidelines. However the cow pasture shows higher phosphate
levels than the landfill.
According to Mark Vanheden of St Johns River Water Management District, one cannot do
a “gotcha type” of water sampling and blame the landfill for anything. Any
polluter can only be judged based on “what leaves their property.” Well what leaves the landfill's property indicates a level of
phosphate that is 0.02 mg/L over the
EPA's guideline!
Unfamiliarity of the locations and terrain complicated
gathering field samples and data.
Due to time constraints, collected samples were taken back
to the lab and frozen to be analyzed later.Nutrient levels are influenced by agriculture and rain.
Future Research (updated since final presentation) what would I change?
The original report said for future testing to: “Sample only on non-cattle accessible areas".
This statement was not clear because everyone took this as these high phosphate levels should be disregard completely. Not at all! This matter would be another project in itself. Pollution from cow pastures could be monitored. The data shows that the cattle accessible areas are a larger contributor to the overall water pollution when compared to the landfill.
In the presentation, it was mentioned to “Take all the
samples on the same day & without rain for 48 hours.” Comments made after the project pointed out
the importance of future research regarding the relationship between rain and
no rain days.
Also, including a larger sample size over a longer period of
time for statistical analysis would expand these findings.
The model sampling method could be applied to other projects
if errors are accounted for.
Other chemicals should be investigated because this project
only checked for one thing.
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