By, Dee Wood and Julie Budwig
Lake Wingra’s watershed is an integral part of Madison’s community. Lake Wingra itself is 339 acres in size and the watershed spans 3460 acres. While somewhat small, Wingra is one of the five Madison lakes known as the Yahara chain. There are urban neighborhoods, a zoo and public beach on Lake Wingra. Monitoring the chloride levels from year to year will provide a clearer perspective on what kind of impact the environment and urban stressors are taking on the lake. With information on the chloride levels of the lake, watershed area springs, and wells around the lake’s neighboring Edgewood College campus; we can better serve the community with knowledge and understanding of the biodiversity in their backyard, as well as make recommendations to the watershed health and management policy makers. After obtaining water samples from each site, then performing a Hach chemical low range chloride test, the chloride content was determined.
Watershed data collection can lead to a greater understanding of the environmental health and can promote a greater awareness of the need for support from the public in maintaining and monitoring its relationship with the lakes and watershed area of the community. It has been a concern of the community on the levels of salt that run through the watershed and into the lake. Salt levels of the lake have been increasing over the years die to increased amount of road salt used during the winter months. How has this affected Lake Wingra that is located in Madison, Wisconsin and the various springs and wells around the lake that is next to Edgewood College Campus? What are the chloride levels of these sites, and how have they changed compared to levels of previous years? In our research, we hypothesize that we expect to find higher levels of chloride in Lake Wingra over the other sites. Reason being, we expect that the spring sample we collect will come directly from the source, with less influence from surrounding areas. Whereas, we expect that Lake Wingra contains more runoff and storm water.
With our collected water samples from Lake Wingra and additional area springs and wells. We measured chloride levels. We collected one sample from each source. With the data we collected, we then compared that to previous data from another Edgewood College student research project. The water samples were collected from Lake Wingra, three area springs and two wells on the campus. The temperature of the water at the source of each area was also collected and recorded. When collecting the sample, we made sure to get deep enough into the water to get as accurate of a sample as we could. We then labeled the samples with the appropriate information and stored them in the refrigerator located in the science department until the tests were preformed. Each sample was then tested for the chloride level. These tests were preformed using the Hach chemical low-range test. The directions for using the Hach chemical tests are located with the supplies in the Natural Science Department. To double check accuracy we each did a chloride test on each sample (total of twelve samples). Then we averaged the two separate results and recorded them.
We found that the chloride levels were mainly higher than other years. However, the Sand Boil site’s chloride level seemed to decrease. As you can see, our hypothesis did not hold up to the data we collected. We expected Lake Wingra to have the highest level of chloride; our results indicated that was incorrect. Although, our expectations of the spring’s chloride levels were partially confirmed; two of the three springs proved our hypothesis correct. There were possible errors in our project in the precision of the measuring during the chemical testing procedures due to human error. Unforeseen influences to the sample areas caused by the surrounding environment can also be considered as a possible contribution to a percent of error.
The increasing levels of chloride found in the Lake Wingra watershed area are due primarily to the increased road salt usage that drains into the watershed. The concern of lake water quality also carries an importance to the increase of sodium in the drinking water quality. The levels of sodium in drinking water are not closely controlled through the chemical processes done at the purification plants. This is a concern to health authorities because higher sodium levels in drinking water can have a negative impact on the human circulatory system. It is imperative that there be a serious emphasis made for the community about the direct affect the lake’s health has to its inhabitants. Consumer awareness needs to rise from information presented. And alternative choices need to be presented to help the consumer reach a higher level of involvement, this coupled with ongoing research, a healthier watershed can be our future.
A Special Thanks To...
