Determination of Water Quality of Natural Water Sources in State Parks Around the Susquehanna River Valley

Elaine Langone Center, Terrace Room

Water of state parks around the Susquehanna River Valley was tested in order to collect baseline quality data. Monitoring the quality of the water in state parks is important in order to ensure the water is safe for both the park’s ecosystem as well as the people who depend on it for outdoor recreation. In order to assess the quality of the water in the different lakes and streams within these parks, samples were collected from the shore or by boat and analyzed in a lab. With the Susquehanna Valley lying within the Marcellus shale region of Pennsylvania, the proposed development of hydraulic fracturing pads within the region have raised environmental concerns for the continued safety and cleanliness of the natural water sources in the area. In order to determine the water quality of these sources, water was tested for turbidity, conductivity, pH, and dissolved oxygen in the field before collecting samples for lab analyses. Heavy metals were tested by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and anions and simple cations were analyzed by ion chromatography. Filtered portions of each sample were titrated with either sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid to test for acidity or alkalinity, respectively. All of these data were collected in order to create an environmental “snapshot” for each park to be compared to later studies to assess the environmental impact of future events on these state parks. The water in the park was shown to have little fluctuation in measurements but had varying levels of iron concentration.