Lower Wheeling Creek: Water Quality Investigation

    



      A local water board by Wheeling Creek is concerned about the water quality in its watershed. Two thirds of the Earth's surface is covered by water. Human bodies hold 75% of water, for it is one of the prime elements responsible for life on Earth. Water circulates through the land just as it does through the human body, transporting, dissolving, replenishing, nutrients and organic matter, and carries away waste material. Contrary to the past, our recent developed technological society has become indifferent to this miracle of life. Rivers, seas, oceans, and other bodies of water have been exploited, mistreated, and contaminated.
     The watershed is sometimes referred to as the catchment area, or drainage basin. It is the land over which surface runoff from rain and snow enter into a stream or river, such as Wheeling Creek. Sample sizes of water from the watershed have been taken to compare its quality between one site to another within the watershed. Much damage has been done to the water and problems are arising.
      A cause of the damaged water could have started off with runoff water. The definition of a watershed includes land over which runoff from the surface and rain enters into. Runoff water can easily pollute any body of water because of the different pollutants, chemicals, or wastes it carries to the watershed. Any farm fertilizers or pesticides could also have entered into the watershed.   
     According to the chemical characteristic chart on the lower Wheeling Creek sites, the water has become highly saturated between sites A-E. The amount of dissolved oxygen has also decreased. Biologically, macroinvertebrates have decreased due to the lack of dissolved oxygen. The decrease in dissolved oxygen may have resulted from the fecal matter off a farm, or chemicals from the pesticedes that is carried into the watershed from runoff or a pipe. A physical characteristic is the particle sizes in the watershed decrease as you move from site A to site E. The smaller the particles, the less permeability there is for the water to pass through and now keeps the water saturated with pollutants.
     Acid mine drainage is a problem on Wheeling Creek watershed because of its history of coal mining dating back to approximately 1810. Energy from coal helped in the development of Wheeling's industrial base and the expansion of European settlement west of the Ohio River. Coal mining remains one of West Virginia's most important industries and the basis for energy resources that continue to drive all industry in the Ohio River Valley. Acid mine drainage is water with high concentrations of sulfuric acid draining out of surface or subsurface coal mines. The sulfur-laden water originates from rainwater percolating through numerous fractures in crushed sulfur-rich coal left in the mines that enters the watershed.
     Oxygen is essential for fish, invertebrate, plant, and aerobic bacteria respiration. Dissolved oxygen levels below 3 ppm are stressful to most aquatic organisms. Levels below 2 or 1 ppm will not support fish. Fish growth and activity usually require 5-6 ppm of dissolved oxygen.
      Dissolved oxygen levels on the chemical characteristic chart show all sites at 0.2. That is below 1 ppm and cannot support the macroinverterates living in the watershed. Also, there is not enough oxygen for much plant life because of how saturated the watershed has become. Also, the percent saturation of dissolved oxygen ranges from 107.30-51.40, which is very high for the watershed.