Rebirth of Water 2018-2019
Continued water quality monitoring throughout the City of Saint John and the Greater Saint John area helps to gain insight into the aquatic habitats that these watercourses provide, as well as their safety for recreational use for humans. The watercourses that have had continuous monitoring this year include: Marsh Creek, Inner Harbour, Newman’s Brook, Caledonia Brook, Alder Brook, Hazen Creek, Taylor Brook, Salmon Creek and Mispec River. Additional sampling sites were added this year on the west side of the City, which include Mill Creek, Spruce Lake Stream, Walker Creek, Mosquito Cove, Manawagonish Creek, and Dominion Park. These new locations were added this year to more accurately portray the water quality of the city’s waterways as a whole. Overall, the watercourses included in this year’s sampling all continue to have the capability to provide sufficient aquatic habitats for various forms of aquatic life. There are several factors that potentially affect the water courses such as stormwater runoff, sanitary sewer overflows and riparian degradation. The stormwater runoff and riparian degradation as well as the hot, dry weather led to elevated temperatures and slightly decreased dissolved oxygen levels as compared to previous years. On average, most sites this year saw an increase in orthophosphate concentration when compared to previous data. At this time, there is no official guideline or recommendation for orthophosphate levels in place. The considerable improvements of water quality parameters for aquatic life seen in Marsh Creek since the completion of Harbour Cleanup in 2014 solidifies that the funding and resources put into the project were much needed. The most notable difference in the water quality is the dissolved oxygen concentrations, although lower in 2018 than 2017, they are still above the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guideline recommended concentration of 6.5 mg/L on average at all the sites sampled.
Continued water quality monitoring throughout the City of Saint John and the Greater Saint John area helps to gain insight into the aquatic habitats that these watercourses provide, as well as their safety for recreational use for humans. The watercourses that have had continuous monitoring this year include: Marsh Creek, Inner Harbour, Newman’s Brook, Caledonia Brook, Alder Brook, Hazen Creek, Taylor Brook, Salmon Creek and Mispec River. Additional sampling sites were added this year on the west side of the City, which include Mill Creek, Spruce Lake Stream, Walker Creek, Mosquito Cove, Manawagonish Creek, and Dominion Park. These new locations were added this year to more accurately portray the water quality of the city’s waterways as a whole.
Overall, the watercourses included in this year’s sampling all continue to have the capability to provide sufficient aquatic habitats for various forms of aquatic life. There are several factors that potentially affect the water courses such as stormwater runoff, sanitary sewer overflows and riparian degradation. The stormwater runoff and riparian degradation as well as the hot, dry weather led to elevated temperatures and slightly decreased dissolved oxygen levels as compared to previous years. On average, most sites this year saw an increase in orthophosphate concentration when compared to previous data. At this time, there is no official guideline or recommendation for orthophosphate levels in place.
The considerable improvements of water quality parameters for aquatic life seen in Marsh Creek since the completion of Harbour Cleanup in 2014 solidifies that the funding and resources put into the project were much needed. The most notable difference in the water quality is the dissolved oxygen concentrations, although lower in 2018 than 2017, they are still above the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guideline recommended concentration of 6.5 mg/L on average at all the sites sampled.
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Figure 13. The colour development <strong>of</strong> standards for the orthophosphate calibration curve.<br />
Total Suspended Solids<br />
Total suspended solids (TSS) were determined through the vacuum filtration method. A glass fiber filter<br />
disk (Whatman Grade 934-AH Circles 55mm) was rinsed three times with 20 mL <strong>of</strong> deionized water and<br />
filtered via vacuum filtration. The filter disks were placed in an aluminum weigh dish and into an oven at<br />
105°C for one hour. The filters and aluminum weigh dishes were removed from the oven and cooled to<br />
room temperature in a desiccator. The weights were measured and recorded, then returned to the oven<br />
for a minimum <strong>of</strong> 20 minutes. The filter and weigh dish were returned to the desiccator and weighed once<br />
at room temperature until a constant weight was achieved (± 0.0003). <strong>Water</strong> samples (100 mL) were<br />
through filtered through the vacuum filtration apparatus, prior to rinsing the filtration apparatus three<br />
times with deionized water to ensure the entire sample had passed through the pre-weighed disks (Figure<br />
14). The filters and associated weigh dishes were then dried/desiccated, as before, and re-weighed. TSS<br />
in mg/L was calculated based on the difference in weight (equation can be found in Appendix B) and<br />
results were recorded.<br />
Figure 14. Image showing solids left on filter paper after filtration was completed using the Total Suspended Solids procedure.<br />
19 | P age
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