Page 12 • Th e Akron Hometowner March 7, 2007

By Julie Ann Madden The Big Sioux River and its tribu-taries: Beaver Creek, Indian Creek and Westfi eld Creek are impaired waterways, according to results of the year-long Big Sioux River Water Tributary Project conducted by Akron-Westfi eld students. Thatʼs what students and their advisors who conducted the study told about 70 people gathered at the Westfi eld Community Center on Feb. 26. Although the students conducted a variety of tests on the water sam-ples, the student scientists focused only on the results of their fecal coliform, E.coli and turbidity tests at this public forum. The reason was that the goal of their study was to determine whether these Plym-outh County water bodies were impaired. In 2004, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) placed the Big Sioux River on its impaired waters list because of high bac-teria counts. Offi cials from the Plymouth County Water and Soil Conservation District and Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) wanted to know if there was any impairment in the coun-tyʼs portion of the Big Sioux River and its tributaries. They asked the Akron-Westfi eld students to con-duct a study, and Plymouth County Farm Bureau provided funding for equipment and testing. The students used Environmen-tal Protection Agency-approved equipment and testing methods and submitted a Water Qual-ity Assurance Plan to the IDNR to make sure their study would comply with EPA and IDNR stan-dards and so their results could be published. Their plan was the fi rst one approved by the IDNR. “Bacteria comes from fecal sources, whether itʼs geese fl ying by, deer sleeping on terraces or whether itʼs a livestock operation or septic systems,” said De Jong. Impairment is defi ned as fi nd-ing more than 10 percent of mean monthly concentrations greater than 630 (bacteria) Colony Form-ing Units per 100 milliliters in water samples, said Akron-Westfi eld science teacher Dwain Wilmot, who is one of the teachers supervising the study. “If you reach this number 10 per-cent of the time in your averages, that water body is determined to be impaired,” said Wilmot, explain-ing that in all written publications the number is 400 CFU/100 ml; however, the group was just noti-fi ed in the last couple of weeks that the new standard is 630 CFU/100 ml. All four testing sites where the students collected water sam-ples had results greater than 630 CRU/100 ml. The Big Sioux River had such samples 47.6 percent of the time; Beaver Creek, 26.3 per-cent; Indian Creek, 42.1 percent and Westfi eld Creek, 38.1 percent. The percentage of mean monthly concentrations greater than 630 CFU/100 ml were: • Beaver Creek, 11.1 percent • Indian Creek, 22.2 percent

• Westfi eld Creek, 40 percent • Big Sioux River, 40 percent Therefore, this studyʼs results show each of the three tributar-ies and the Big Sioux River are impaired, said Wilmot, explaining that the students collected water samples once every other week during this study. Just two weeks ago, they learned the IDNR now collects and processes samples fi ve times a month in state studies. The students reported their goal was to be able to process 95 per-cent of their water samples. They had been able to test 94.87 percent of fecal coliform bacteria tests and 98.75 percent of their E.coli Colis-can tests. Turbidity is an indicator of sus-pended solids in water bodies and most often occurs from precipi-tation runoff into a water body, said Wilmot. “If we see lots of suspended solids in our water samples, most of the time youʼre going to see an increase in bacte-ria concentrations. As the water clears up, most of the time youʼll see bacteria counts in the water go down.” Their results showed that Westfi eld Creek and Big Sioux Riverʼs E.coli and turbidity tests had a strong correlation, he said. “Westfi eld Creek was always interesting to go sample at,” said student Rebecca Meerdink, “because most of the time it was not very pretty to look at and didnʼt have a pleasant smell.” At times, students had to wear masks when counting bacterial colonies on the E.coli fecal cul-tures from Westfi eld Creek, she added. “Westfi eld Creek had a high number of bacteria all the time when compared to Beaver and Indian Creeks,” said Susan Meerdink. “It was not just after a rainfall. It was a continual high number.” It was noted that although one would predict bacteria concen-trations would be higher during

droughts, which occurred during April, May, June and July during this study, their results showed that “generally, the concentrations fell during the drought period.” Therefore, the high numbers could be contributed to precipitation runoff. When Rick Oetken of Akron suggested the studyʼs results were skewed because the students hadnʼt gathered fi ve samples per month, it was pointed out that water samples were gathered from all four sites the same day and within an hour or so of each other. The students gathered samples every other Wednesday during their last school period of the day. The students used EPA and IDNR-approved sampling and testing methods. Students voluntarily returned to the science classroom and conducted tests that evening and over the next two days. All of their testing procedures were documented in the Water Quality Assurance Plan that was approved by the IDNR. “Even though they talked to one scientist who preferred fi ve samples, the IDNR offi cials gave approval for two,” said ISU Extension Crop Specialist Joel De Jong. “Granted, their only two per month skews it but some of the actual (federal) 519 numbers come from even less testing than that. It wasnʼt that they had faulty strategy according to the IDNR.” “I think it would have been dif-ferent if we didnʼt have all students doing it,” said student Allison DeRocher. “If it was someoneʼs full-time job,” said a person in the audi-ence. “Itʼs a tough balance how do you handle the cost of testing versus what you really should have for a daily test,” said De Jong. Costs have been kept at a mini-mum having students and teach-ers voluntarily conduct the water study rather than have a certifi ed science laboratory do it, said Kim

Meerdink. “Itʼs as good as weʼve got so far,” said Wilmot. “According to (IDNRʼs) John Olson, nobodyʼs done anything more or equal to what weʼve done.” “What we just did was create a baseline, a picture in time of an entire year on which to base any future occurrences,” said Wilmot. “Our intention was to do a year-long study and see how the num-bers changed,” said teacher Kim Meerdink. “Get a basic idea of each of the Big Sioux River and the streams. Weʼve certainly acknowl-edged from the beginning, this was just going to be a beginning. This was just to get some information so the next step was logical.” “Iʼm so proud of our school, of the leadership, and the quality and the dedication of students,” said Mary Lucken of Akron. “I hope all of you go on to continue your sci-entifi c studies and continue your interest in the environment. I hope the school will let us know what we can do to support future stu-dents ̓involvement in this because this is something we can be proud of. This is just outstanding.” The crowd applauded the stu-dents who included Savanna Bice, Allison DeRocher, Erica Kjar, Rebecca Meerdink, Susan Meerdink, Emily Willer, and Kemin Wuyep and their teachers: Kim Meerdink, Dwain Wilmot and retired teacher Ron Wilmot. Landowners, farmers and resi-dents living in the Westfi eld Creek Watershed Area had been invited to this public forum to see if they wanted to start a local group to fur-ther study the Westfi eld Creek. “Letʼs presume lots of streams are impaired,” said John Lucken of rural Akron. “Is the EPA going to put them all on the endangered list? Restrict livestock operations? Restrict agriculture? Whatʼs going to happen? What is the hope of cleaning up the Big Sioux River to what it was 200 years ago before agriculture happened? Whatʼs driving this?”

Phase II: Westfi eld Creek Water Study Project

Akron-Westfi eld students share the results of their Big Sioux River Water Tributary Project at a public forum on Feb. 26 at the Westfi eld Community Center. From left: Susan Meerdink, Emily Willer, Erica Kjar, Savanna Bice, Kemin Wuyep, Rebecca Meerdink and Allison DeRocher.

“The 1987 Clean Water Act,” said De Jong, “and the EPA con-tinuing to get sued to try to imple-ment that act.” “I donʼt think you can get the rivers cleaned,” said Lucken. “You wonʼt make them pris-tine,” said De Jong. “But you can make them better,” said student Savanna Bice. Offi cials present informed the group that water quality improve-ment projects were being con-ducted on the Big Sioux River in Iowa, South Dakota and Minne-sota. De Jong would like to see a project started by local leaders similar to what heʼs seen in north-east Iowa. Under local leader-ship there, some watershed areas are being improved voluntarily. These groups have received some grant funding and created incen-tives for people participating in the watershed area projects. In just fi ve years, these groups are seeing differences in turbidity and aquatic insect populations, said De Jong. “It is possible we can improve them.” “Iʼve seen it get out of hand with EPA on issues that are driven not by common sense,” said Lucken. “Thatʼs why I want local water-sheds to do this,” said De Jong. “There are some people at the national level that like locally-led watershed action. Local people calling the shots. Itʼs still a politi-cal issue. No doubt about it.” “But Iʼd much rather have you guys take some action now because they are going to get harder on the ones that wonʼt do anything,” said De Jong. “Then they force them to do it, and we know what kind of response, what kind of backlash that creates.” We are not involved in enforce-ment – that is the IDNR and EPA, said Jim Lahn of the NRCS. De Jong said their role would be to provide information as requested by a locally-led group. De Jong asked for people to volunteer to form a committee to lead a Westfi eld Creek Watershed Area Project. Those who volun-teered will meet later this month. “Students are willing to do more,” said Savanna Bice. “We are here at your disposal. Weʼll do whatever.” “Weʼve brought it this far,” said Allison DeRocher. “Weʼd like to see something happen.” Editor s̓ Note: The students ̓fi nal report is available on the Akron-Westfi eld School Web site.www.akron-westfi eld.k12.ia.us.

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