Alexandra McDevitt May 25 th, 2012

Abstract The water quality of Clermont College campus will help to determine the state of the environment and the various ecological impacts that are occurring. To analyze the water we used 4 tests, hardness, acidity, chlorosity, and oxygen content. These tests allowed us to make correlations between the different areas.

Introduction An analysis of water can lead one to make assumptions about an ecosystem. This is can be a good start when looking at a new area. The amount of dissolved oxygen will lead to whether or not the water can sustain life. The acidity also plays a roll in the amount and diversity of life, as some species toleration of acidity can differ. The chlorosity of the water can tell you how clean the water is but also has an affect on the living organisms. The hardness of the water would be the amount of calcium carbonate. This also has an affect on what kind of life would be in and around the water of an ecosystem.

Literature Review The Water Analysis lab consists of four tests. Those tests look for hardness, acidity, chlorosity, and dissolved oxygen. The acidity test is conducted to find the pH of the water samples. A range of 6.5 to 8 is the ideal reading for water. pH is measured on a 1 to 14 scale. The hardness test used titration to find the parts per million of CaCO3. The chloride content test uses titration to find the chlorosity of the water sample. This test finds the chlorine and bromide content in the water. The dissolved oxygen test uses titration to find the milligrams of oxygen per liter of water. This test is also called the Winkler test after the developer Lajos Winkler. The test is a measure of the biological activity of the water.

Materials and Methods To determine hardness, 100mls of sample water was measured as precisely as possible using a volumetric flask. A couple drops of indicator solution was added to the 100mls of sample water in the Erlenmeyer flask. A hydrochloride titration was performed until a light pink color was noticeable. Records were maintained of levels in the buret before and after each titration. The amount of HCl added was then calculated by multiplying by 5 to determine ppm of CaCO 3.(Carter, 1991).

Materials and Methods To determine the acidity of the water samples a pH meter was used. After standardizing the meter with two different buffer solutions, the meter measured the pH of each water sample. To determine the chlorosity of the water samples, two to three drops of and indicator solution (potassium chromate) was added to 50 mL of the sample. Then silver nitrate was titrated into the water + indicator solution with records being maintained throughout the process. The chlorosity was then calculated by multiplying the mL silver nitrate used by and then dividing by the sample size.

Materials and Methods The dissolved oxygen content was determined by titrating with thiosulfate ions. It was the calculated using the set up of equations outlined in the lab protocol.

Data Hardness (ppm CaCO3)Acidity (pH) Chlorosity (gm Cl-/L degree C) O2 Content (gm O2/L H2O) Dogwood Grove North Maple Creek South Maple Creek

Results

Conclusions North Maple Creek and South Maple Creek have a higher calcium carbonate concentration than Dogwood Grove. This could be due to the fact that creeks tend to have more of a flow where as the sample taken from Dogwood Grove was taken from water that was still. The flowing water would have the calcium carbonate moving throughout while the still water would allow the calcium carbonate to settle to the bottom. There is still a good amount of hardness to the water from Dogwood Grove. The oxygen content was higher in the sample from Dogwood Grove, but not by much. This could just mean that the small pool where the sample was taken from had a significant amount of life and due to the water being still the oxygen was trapped and therefore there was more oxygen than in the other samples. It was unexpected to have a lower pH in the sample from Dogwood grove due to it having the least amount of calcium carbonate, being basic, in it. This could be being caused by another unknown factor that was not tested. The chlorosity was the highest figure in all three samples. Dog wood grove still had the lowest. This could again be contributed to the lack of flow where the sample was taken from. North and South maple creek would have more chlorine stirred up throughout the water while the chlorine settled to the floor in Dogwood Grove. All of this has an affect on the ecology of Clermont College Campus. The contents of the water on campus is one of the most important factors. The water seems to be generally healthy with all of the measurements being in the safest area for life to occur.

Bibliography 1. Stein Cart, J. "Ecology." 29 Mar May United States Environmental Protection Agency. 24 May 2012.