Though much has been done to correct the river's pollution problems, there remain in the river chemical toxins and pathogens. In the 1920's the river sent raw sewage downstream toward Houston. Dallas led the state at that time in the numbers of typhoid deaths. While these egregious errors have been corrected, the river has the following storm water constituents of concern:
Cadmium
Chlordane
Chromium
Diazinon
Copper
Fecal coliforms
Lead
Fecal streptococcus
Zinc
TSS
How do we encourage our students to become involved in the scientific
study of this river while protecting them from its dangers? Because depressed
dissolved oxygen levels have been such big problems for the river in the
past, we will begin by teaching the students how to test for dissolved
oxygen in Five Mile Creek, which is a small neighborhood creek that feeds
into the river proper. The river periodically suffers from depressed
DO levels for several reasons. The river is wide and has little canopy
cover to protect it from the sun. The summer months produce a heat that
has been likened to that of Hades. The final cause, poor wastewater treatment,
has been solved by an excellent modern system of water treatment. The students
will attempt to answer the question, "Will canopy cover make a difference
in the dissolved oxygen levels in Five Mile Creek?
The students will use the GLOBE protocol for testing for dissolved oxygen,
pages 3-24 to 3-27 of the Hydrology section of the GLOBE notebook. The
students will test on a monthly basis, and will test for pH and temperature
at the same time. They will use a La Motte kit to test for DO.
The seventh grade students will test pooled water that has canopy cover
and pooled water that has no canopy cover at 3 different sites along Five
Mile Creek.
"Well, it's flooding down in Texas..."
Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Texas Flood"
photo by Carla Lowe (attribution to avoid bad karma)