|
White-shoes test gives passing grade
By John Denny
Staff Reporter
Local residents and officials, including Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, gathered and waded into the Rehoboth Bay just south of Dewey Beach last weekend to assess local water clarity.
Normally, an elected official might not be the best judge of condition of local bays, but at the 6th annual Governor’s Wade-in anyone could double as a scientist.
Indeed, anyone can participate because the test is easy: put on white shoes and head out into the water until you can no longer see your shoes.
Participants, geared up in white tennis shoes and swim suits, headed out this year nearly a quarter-mile into the bay, because of low tide, to mark a new record for water clarity. Sunday’s water clarity mark hit 55 inches, up from 50 inches last year, indicating that the area’s waterways may be in better shape than some thought.
“What we’re seeing is that water quality is stable right now,” said Delaware Center for the Inland Bays Scientific and Technical Coordinator Chris Bason, putting the test in perspective. “We’re not seeing it get any better and we’re not seeing it get much worse, which is the important thing.”
“Sometimes we’re seeing an area do better in one area but do worse in another. For example, the Rehoboth Bay is good on nutrient goals but we’re missing it on phosphorus,” Bason added.
In addition to the wade-in, which is an official environmental indicator for Delaware’s Inland Bay’s, The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays use Secchi disks for a more scientific examination of the water quality.
Scientists test the water for nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, phosphorus, pH balance and temperature.
Land development, and farm and residential run-off, lead to high nitrogen levels, which is a key contributor to excess nutrients in the Inland Bays. Those nutrients in turn cause phytoplankton to accumulate and block out sunlight needed by other aquatic plant life.
The imbalance of plant life then affects oxygen levels in the water.
Poor dissolved oxygen levels can be extremely harmful for fish and other aquatic life and have been responsible for four major fish kills in the area, totaling more than 1 million dead fish.
“There are so many sources of pollutants that it’s important to single out just one,” Bason said. “Right now we’re working to educate people. Education is the key; and if we can get people talking then maybe we can make changes for the better.”
“Every little bit helps,” he concluded.
|
