[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.
