Water Quality in Streams Focusing on Riparian Zones
by Beth Ruhl

INTRODUCTION

Water is a resource that all living organisms need to survive. The quality of the water that organisms consume or live in greatly affects their chances of survival. There are many factors that influence water quality of streams. Some of these are surrounding farms, driveways, parking lots, sewage treatment plants, septic systems, industries that discharge chemicals, feedlots, construction, and finally riparian zones.

Riparian zones are areas of stream side vegetation along streams. Having a riparian zone along a stream will produce many benefits. The most important benefit of a riparian zone is its effect on water quality. When it rains water falls on hills and from the hill it flows down into a stream. The vegetation between the hill and the stream filters silt, chemicals and other pollutants so the stream will be cleaner. Roots of the vegetation also prevent erosion from happening, which causes flooding. If flooding happens the vegetation can also stop the water from moving quickly.

There are also economic benefits to riparian zones. If enough trees are grown timber can be produced from them, and if it is carefully managed meadows along the streams can be used for grazing livestock or producing hay.

Riparian zones also provide homes to many species of plants and animals. Most riparian zones host species that are almost extinct. If the riparian zones are sustained and managed right they create more bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is important because if all organisms had the same traits ifa disease came in it would wipe all of them out because they were all the same.

There are many places, especially in Kansas that lack riparian zones. Because of this there are many organizations out there that are dedicated to restoring vegetation along streams. One of these is the Governor's Water Quality Initiative. This organization protects the riparian zones that are in existence, and finds places to start new ones. Another organization is the Wetland & Riparian Areas Project. They help farmers with their streams, educate the public about riparian zones, and restore them.

To find the water quality of a stream one can do a visual assessment, chemical assessment, or take a survey of the species present in or around the stream. When doing a chemical assessment one should test the temperature, dissolved oxygen, 02 saturation, nitrates, phosphates, pH, turbidity, total coliforms, biological oxygen demand and stream flow.

A visual assessment should include the weather of the day and in the last 24 hours, the major land uses near the watershed, the trash at the creek, the animals at the creek, the animals in the creek, what the stream banks look like, the pools, the riffles, the runs of the stream, what is in the water, and finally what the stream bed looks like.

To do a macroinvertabrate assessment one should kick the mud in the stream into a net. Then sound up the number of sensitive, somewhat sensitive, and tolerant macroinvertabrates to find out the quality of the stream.

My hypothesis is that if we test the stream for a second time then the quality will be the same as it was last time, which is fair, because there has been little change in the environment of the stream.


MATERIALS

1. writing utensil
2. notepad
3. StreamLink data sheets
4. old clothes
5. boots
6. green water monitoring kit
7. net
8. stream


METHODS

1. Form testing groups and go to the stream.
2. Do journaling for 20 minutes.
3. Do visual assessment for 20 minutes. Then record results.
4. Do chemical assessment for 20 minutes. Then record results.
5. Do macroinvertebrates assessment for 20 minutes. Then record results.
6. Go back to school and compile all results.
7. Take results and journals to Stream Link.


DISCUSSION

My hypothesis was correct. The stream quality had stayed at fair. Both the visual, chemical, and macroinvertebrates assessment all said that the stream was of fair quality. In doing the visual assessment we found the major land uses in our watershed were roads, lawns, septic systems, cropland and active gazing land. All of these contributed to the pollution in the stream. In and around the stream we found some trash. The banks there were very erodible. This indicated there was limited plant growth because of the water quality. In the chemical assessment we found that the total 02 saturation was about 42%. That means that most tolerant species can live in the stream. The pH balance of the stream was 8 which indicated it was not to acidic and didn't have too much basidity. There were fecal coliforms present in our stream which indicated that the water was most likely not suitable for drinking. When we assessed the # of macroinvertabrets in the stream we found a few sensitive, a medium amount of semi-sensitive and lots of tolerant species. This shows that some animals would be able to survive in this stream. There was a general consensus among my classmates and me that the stream quality was fair. There were a few students who got different results than I did on the chemical assessment. I think this was because they did not properly distribute the
chemicals.


CONCLUSION

I have really enjoyed doing this project. Through doing research, stream testing and the stream conference I have learned so much more about the way water affects organisms than I would have ever dreamed ofifl had not done this project. Our monitoring Spring Creek proved that my hypothesis was right. Spring Creek did have a few problems. Now that I know about stream ecology I will make a conscious effort to educate people about riparian zones and how to take care of their streams.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR PROJECT

Governor's Water Quality Initiative. "State Conservation Commission" Trees for Clean
Water

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Bureau of Environmental Quality.
"Benefits of Riparian Corridors" Nonpoint Source Pollution and Riparian Comdors
in Kansas

Kansas Department of Health and Environment. "Water" Kansas Environment 2002

Kansas State Conservation Commission. "Riparian Management" Kansas River and
Stream ComdorManagement Guide

StreamLink. "Chemical, Visual and Macroivertebrate Assessment" 2002

USDA. "Improve Water Quality" Riparian Buffers Work

Wetland and Riparian Areas Project. "Riparian Area Benefits" Riparian Area Management

Wetland and Riparian Areas Project. "Conservation Cover" Wetland and Riparian Best
Management Practices for Kansas