Analysis of Buffalo Bayou Waterway, Odey, Ochuko; Tadros, Meena; To, Alyce
College of Science and Mathematics
Professor: Dr. Betty Thompson
Fertilizers, high amounts of sewage wastes and vehicles in the cities contribute to elevated levels of nitrates, TDS, and chloride in waterways. Due to these exceedingly high levels of nutrients in the water (eutrophication), water organisms are deprived of light and dissolved oxygen leading to death. In this experiment we tested nitrate, TDS, and chloride levels of various sampling sites on the Buffalo Bayou Waterway. We observed the upstream sites contained lower nitrate, TDS, and chloride levels and downstream through the urban parts of the city, nitrate and TDS levels greatly increased. Chloride had increased levels at Mayde Creek and Galveston, but low levels in the other sites. Gay Hills, is far from polluted city life and the nitrate level of 1.1 ppm, TDS level of 98 ppm, and chloride level of 0.8 ppm reflected that. The next two collection sites, Mayde Creek and White Oak, had similar nitrates levels (13.97 ppm and 15.2 ppm). TDS levels for Mayde Creek and White Oak were 180.5 ppm and 566.5 ppm, respectively. On the other hand, chloride level for Mayde Creek (179 ppm) was higher than White Oak (3.2 ppm). The Ship Channel and Galveston had highest levels of nitrates and TDS. The Ship Channel contained nitrates at 77.82 ppm and TDS at 6827 ppm. Galveston contained 103.6 ppm of nitrates and 32150 ppm of TDS. Chloride level for the Ship Channel was 4 ppm. Galveston had high chloride levels, as expected (3394.7 ppm). These high levels were caused by large amounts of pollution from factories and fertilizers. The Arboretum, although located midway in the collection sites, contained the lowest amounts of all three parameters. This shows how the natural environment surrounding the Arboretum provided the site with efficient ways of keeping the waterways clean and filtering out pollution.
