French Creek Watershed Schools

Pittsburgh Area Schools

For the first time in a number of years, a true, cold, and snowy winter has set in, especially in northwest PA.  Most of the French Creek Watershed has been under snow since November.  Cold temperatures have been prevalent throughout Western PA this December. 
 
The winter season offers a unique chance to discover how a stream changes through the season.    When do you think your creek froze?   If it is still flowing today, why hasn’t it frozen?  Why might a small little stream still be flowing, yet a large, wide creek be frozen?  These could be some interesting questions to investigate.  Has the cold temperatures and the snow had any effects on your water chemistry?  You might discover that total dissolved solids can be higher in the winter, especially as snow melts.   See the article to the right to find out one reason why.  Nutrient levels can increase as snow melts and carries soil, animal waste, and fertilizers off the land. 
 
Even though you have been cold while sampling lately, maybe you can grieve for all the aquatic life that must struggle to survive the winter.  You can find out more about how different creek creatures adapt to the winter, as well as other winter waterway topics, on our website:  http://creekconnections.allegheny.edu/WinterSeasonWaterways.html 
 

It’s that time of the year again when the snow is falling… and falling and falling and         falling.  Despite how nice it looks on tree branches or rolled up into a snowman, if snow is left unattended on the roads it can cause problems.  So what has man done to remedy this situation?  That’s right!  Snow plows and salt!  The yummy salt (NaCl) that goes on your mashed potatoes also goes on the roads to melt the ice and snow for safe traveling. 
According to the PA Dept. of Transportation, each year Pennsylvania uses approximately
90,000 tons of salt (mostly NaCl) to de-ice the 40,500 miles of highways and roads
(Kundman, 1998).  Now the question is, how does this extra salt affect our waterways? 

Many roadways drainage systems empty rain, melting snow, and slush directly into nearby
waterways through pipes, culverts, and ditches without treatment.  Storm drains do not
always connect to a municipal treatment facility.   In addition, salt gets mixed in with the
snow on the roads and then finds its way to the nearby soil through plowing, runoff, and
cars splashing it onto the berms.  So the salt from roadways can enter streams directly
from the road or from surrounding melting snow (runoff) and groundwater. 

The salt then gets dissolved by the water and becomes part of the Total Dissolved Solids
of the creek.  Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are minerals, organic matter, and nutrients
that have dissolved in the water.  Consequentially, salt from the roads increases the TDS
of a waterway.  Specifically it raises its salinity.  Salinity only deals with salts and is
defined as the concentration of all ionic constituents that includes, halides, bicarbonates,
and sodium chloride (NaCl).   Large bodies of water, such as rivers may not feel the
effects of road salt.  TDS readings tend to decrease in the winter months due to
heightened water discharge.  Small streams and creeks are the places where the amount
of TDS from salt may jump a considerable amount. 

A sudden or extreme change in TDS and salinity can be harmful to aquatic life.  Aquatic
organisms require a certain amount of TDS in the water.  If the amount of TDS is too great it will affect an organism’s ability to regulate the amount of fluids in and out of its cells. This process is called osmosis.  If the ionic concentrations in the water become greater than the fluids within the organism, the creature will lose body fluids and dehydrate.  So putting your happy little goldfish into the salty ocean will cause it to have to spend more energy on controlling its osmotic regulation, adding much more stress to its life.   In some studies, adult freshwater fish have been found to tolerate TDS concentrations up to 10,000 mg/L (Sorensen et. al, 1996), much higher than you probably have found in your creek, and some insects such as netspinning caddisflies may not affected by higher salinity (Kundman, 1998).  Other studies do suggest that pollution such as salinity can cause insects to drift, let go of the creek bottom, enter the water column, and float downstream to more favorable conditions.  Nevertheless, it is hard to determine how spikes in stream salinity concentrations can have an affect on aquatic life behaviorally or physiologically. 

       - Kundman, J. M., 1998.  The Effects of Road Salt Runoff (NaCl) on Caddisfly Drift in
 Mill Run, Meadville, PA.   Meadville, PA: 
 Allegheny College. 
      - Sorensen, D.L., V.Mortenson, and R. L. Zollinger, 1996.  A Review and Synthesis of
 the Impacts of Road Salting on Water Quality. 
 Salt Lake City: Utah Dept. of Transportation UT-95.08. 

In the marble-stone supply store beside your school, most likely the rocks would be metamorphic. 
Metamorphic rock form from sedimentary rock exposed to a high amount of pressure and high temperatures over a long span of time. The commercial metamorphic rocks that the store sells could be marble or quartzite, a favorite for a gardener's flower bed. Metamorphic rocks will not greatly affect the water chemistry of your testing site. Neither will igneous rock, most common of which is flint and granite. Students could use rock guides  to identify the "supply-store" rocks that fall into your creek. 

Also, if rocks are present in your stream creating riffles, more oxygen from the air would be drawn into the creek water, providing an ideal conditions for aquatic life. Rocks also add to the architecture of the riparian zone lining the creek, which promotes land stability and less erosion.  If soil erodes into the creek, it can change the water chemistry.  It might also be interesting to test a "no-rock" area and the "rock" area for erosion to see how much of an effect rocks have on land stability.  Geology is definitely an important aspect when learning about our waterways. 

Should water collected for Sample A bottles and Sample B bottles be taken from the exact same place in the creek? 

Yes.   After rinsing all containers, pour the contents of a bailer or shoreline sampler into Sample A 
bottles.  Then bail again.  This water should be for Sample B. If you fail to get enough water to ensure completion of all your tests, then bail again.  Don’t come back 15 minutes later for more water. 

With all this water collecting, you should be obtaining it from the same spot in the creek - ideally in the 
middle of the waterway at mid-depth.  You take an “A” and a “B” sample in order to test two trials to make sure your results are accurate.  You should get similar results between the two, because they are from the same spot in the creek taken at about the same time.   If the results differ significantly, you may have made a lab error.  Try another trial. 

If you are taking your Sample A from  a different spot in the creek from Sample B (ie. a riffle vs. a 
pool or along shore vs. middle), the results may naturally differ, and you will not be able to test your 
accuracy.   This will also distort your average results.  If you want to compare spots in the creek - you’ll need more sample bottles to do separate trials for them. 

Why are our results showing alkalinity to be low, yet the pH to be high (basic)? 

Stream water in this region often has good levels of alkalinity, especially when the creek’s water source is groundwater.  The groundwater has been exposed to all the rocks containing calcium carbonate and therefore is carrying with it high buffering capacity. 

So if your stream normally has good alkalinity in it, what does it mean if it drops all of a sudden? 
Perhaps the water in the creek at the time has not  picked up it’s buffering power (ie. maybe it did not soak into the ground and through the rocks).  Surface runoff from rainstorms has little time to pick up alkalinity, and might be acidic (low pH).   So it enters the creek, mixes with the water already in the creek (which may be well buffered), and all of a sudden, some chemistry starts to happen.  The extra hydrogens in the acid rain are taken up by the alkaline waters, using up some of the amount of alkalinity (ability to buffer) while raising the pH. 

French Creek Watershed Schools

Mr. Dzurko’s students in the Penncrest School District’s Gifted Program have been battling the cold weather as they started their sampling of various new sites in the French Creek Watershed.   Two of the sites are at the Maplewood High School’s riparian zone restoration project on Indian Run.    They will see if having the goats fenced off from having full access to the stream will maintain high water quality in that section of the stream.

Pittsburgh Area Schools 

At Schenley High School, Creek Connections was introduced to Ms. Atwood's student teacher this fall. She was a great help at the sampling site on Plum Creek in Penn Hills Park. We wish her much luck in the real job world and hope that she'll maintain her relationship with Creek Connections! The last trip to the creek, the students were very late (due to a tardy bus) but found that they didn't miss anything. It's amazing how quickly you can get all of your data when the thermometer level is rapidly descending! After their work was complete, some of the students "slipped" off for a little "skating" on the infield next to their sampling site. There was just a little snow on the ground, but the dirt infield was a solid sheet of ice! 

During North Hills High School’s  trip to the Wildwood and North Dakota testing sites we had the opportunity to perform several tests.  Besides the typical water quality tests (pH, alkalinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids, nitrogen, phosphorous, temperature), we also had the chance to test the velocity of the water, and use the kick-nets to classify the different types of macroinvertebrates, and determine the water quality.  Even though the weather wasn’t what we had hoped it to be, we still had a great time while completing all of the tests.  Most people seemed to enjoy using the kick-nets and there was a lot of excitement while we all examined and categorized the macro-invertebrates. (Written by Melanie Haynes and Shelby Asher).

In November, Seneca Valley Intermediate High School collected macroinvertebrates with some unique methods.   Six weeks earlier, 4 bug boxes were created out of chicken wire mesh.  Each class was divided into teams for this project:  Contents (filling the box with leaves and twigs), Closure (securely closing the box), Placement (best location in the creek), and Security (keeping the box in the creek).  The boxes remained in the creek for the six weeks, allowing creek critters to make their homes inside.  After the boxes were removed, the students counted and identified the macroinvertebrates.   A contest between classes was held to see who had successfully caught the most macroinvertebrates and chosen a good spot in the creek to place their box.   Other schools will have the chance to see their bug boxes and research results at the student research symposium on April 6. 

Mrs. Seth's classes at Springdale Jr./Sr. High School have been taking turns visiting the Allegheny River at Rachel Carson Park next to the Duquesne power plant. Each class conducts the four on-site tests and examines the riverfront while they're at the site. They return to the school with water samples for further testing. Each trip gets colder and colder, although sometimes the water temperature is interesting as their site is just downstream from the plant... Believe them when they tell you that sampling a river in wintertime is COOOLLLDDD! Can you say wind-funneling? The last trip they found evidence of animal life in the form of a dead fish (Oops!) and some interesting tree trunks next to the shoreline. Keep up the good investigating techniques Springdale! 

Students from Carmalt Elementary School have traveled away from the city  to  sample a beautiful stream in Washington County - Mingo Creek.  During some sample trips, they have seen their share of fish - brook trout, perch, minnows, and crayfish.    Student research projects have included sampling for macroinvertebrates using leaf pack bags (surprisingly not finding many though).  Shore line vegetation was studied by one student who marked out 10m x 10m grids next to the creek, and recorded the percentage of vegetation types in each square meter.  A website on “Carmalt’s Creek” is being developed, so the students have a chance to share what they are discovering at Mingo Creek.   It will have some nice images as well.   Check for it on the Creek Connections website homepage this spring.

Streams are affected not only by what is in their close proximity but by what is in their entire watershed.  I had the opportunity to discuss with Mr. Gary Shaffer the impact that forests and logging have on French Creek.  Mr. Shaffer and his son Matt run a local independent forestry consulting firm.  Their job is to go into a woodlot and plan which trees will be cut and what they will be used for.  Currently there are no regulations that force landowners to have this done before they have logging done on their property.  Without proper planning a logging operation can have serious impacts not only on the local habitat but on the surrounding area as well. 

When preparing for the logging company to come in the Shaffers make sure that all of the small  streams and runoff channels have pipes placed over them where logs will have to be dragged.  This prevents sediment from ending up in the streams and then going into the creek.  They do this only when necessary and try to avoid pulling the timber across streams if possible. 

Mr. Shaffer is a retired forester for the DCNR.  While there his job was very similar to what he is doing now.  All of the government agencies that hold tracts of land have their own foresters that come in and do this before an area is logged out.  This practice provides for proper management of the wilderness area.  There are four items that were concentrated on when going into a woodlot before it was logged.  They were wildlife, wood, water, and recreation.  By using these four basic uses of a woodlot foresters are able to make decisions on what will be best for the future of the forest. 

Presently, no legislation is in place requiring landowners to have this done.  In the future it is likely  that more laws will be created.  These laws will help insure that before logging happens proper planning has been done.  They will also guarantee that future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy the same natural wonders that we enjoy today. 

Website for further investigation: 
N.W. PA Sustainable Forestries Initiative 
http://ceed.alleg.edu/CEED/Nwpsfi.htm