Water testing of PR - 6/26

[buzzbaiter]

Based upon concerns about the river and the fishing in general, I decided to do some quick testing of the water. Being a chemist for over 28 years along with BS in Chemistry, I feel I'm more than qualified. preliminary results:

TSS - measure of suspended solids = <3. Limit can vary but for companies that discharge directly in rivers, its generally around 100 mg/L. Obviously less is better.

pH = 7.07 Usually Limits 6 to 9.

Conductivity = 781 uohms/s Basically a measure of ions - both negative and positive. Examples are sodium, magnesium, chloride, phosphorus, etc

TDS - measure of dissolved solids = 550 mg/L. Limit is 500.

Metals: I checked for 26 different metals. All were ND(non-detect) except for:

• Aluminum = 200 ppb(parts per billion)
• Boron = 120 ppb
• Calcium = 46 ppm(parts per million
• Iron = 655 ppb
• Potassium = 5 ppm
• Magnesium = 14 ppm
• Manganese = 176 ppb
• Sodium = 79 ppm

Nothing unusual there. Normal amounts of mostly naturally occurring metals. Iron is a bit high as is Manganese. These are aesthetic contaminants in that they affect color causing staining.

Ran some bacteria tests(fecal/total coliform; e.coli) as well but they won't be done for another 20-24 hrs or so.

Based upon all this data, river is - at least from a chemistry pov - in great shape. In fact cleaner then most trout streams. I saw fish and even recent spawning beds so fish are there.