Samantha, CUR- Measuring Water Quality Parameters

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) is a diverse, shallow-water estuary stretching across 40% of Florida's East Coast. The total estimated annual economic value of the lagoon is 3.7 billion, supporting 15,000 full and part time jobs and providing recreational opportunities for 11 million people per year. Throughout recorded history, there have been fish kills, algal blooms and changes in water quality.  The lagoon has had a natural ability to absorb a certain amount of pollutants. However, when overloaded, the lagoon suffers.  My independent research project focuses on a specific storm drain canal, (Canal Street Canal) which discharges into the IRL.   In a recent post, Garbage of Canal Street I discuss the significance of monitoring the water quality at this specific canal.

Outline of Canal street Canal Watershed (170.6 acres) discharging at the East
end into the IRL

My Scientific Question is, In the Canal Street Canal, are there any specific water quality parameters that exceed Florida Department of Environmental Regulations (FDEP)?   When talking about water quality parameters I am focusing on nutrients specifically, such as; Nitrogen (TIN) and Phosphate (TP), which although occur naturally, anthropogenic forms create an overabundance in nutrients, leading to a decline in the water quality.  Parameters such as Chlorophyll and Oxygen are imperative when measuring water quality parameters.

Oxygen fell below FDEP hypoxic criterion
on 9/16/15 (1.23 mg/L)

Chlorophyll is a color pigment found in plants, algae and phytoplankton. FDEP sets regulations regarding the amount of chlorophyll acceptable within the water column.  The graph on the right shows that chlorophyll did in fact exceed the regulation on 9/4/2015(4.4μg/L) as well as on 12/11/2016 (6.7μg/L). A high concentration of chlorophyll  could lead to a hypothesis that there may be an immense amount of phytoplankton biovolume.  The reason for this amount of phytoplankton could have to do with an overabundance in nutrients. Due to limited space phytoplankton (algae specifically) will begin to die and therefore decompose.  This decomposition leads to hypoxia, or very low oxygen in the water. No oxygen, no life.  The two most important nutrients for phytoplankton growth are the elements, Nitrogen and Phosphorus, which are also two commonly combined elements in your every day fertilizer, a common anthropogenic source leading to an overabundance of nutrients within the water column due to river runoff.  There seems to be a relationship between high amounts of nutrients measured on 9/16/2015 and hypoxia.  Copper was also measured within the water quality parameters although information of this requires some further research and therefore, will be discussed further in posts to come.

Total Phosphate (TP) exceeded FDEP regulations (0.3, 0.4, 0.49).
Total Inorganic Nitrogen exceeded FDEP regulations (0.51) on 9/16/2015.

Citations:

(1) (K Fegley, City Engineer of New Smyrna Beach, September 2015)

(2) Garland, Ed.2015. The Indian River Lagoon: An Estuary of natural significance. Retrieved from http://floridaswater.com/indianriverlagoon/