Water Quality Assessment Steps

October 2—What is the first step you would take when assessing the water quality of a body of water?  In order, tell me what other steps you would take.  What are the reasons for the steps being done in this particular order?  How would organisms living on or around the water factor into your assessment?


Steps of evalutating a water body:
- Evaluate the site by observation, look for any sewer running into the water or dumping going on.
- Capture and Idetify algae and insecets
- Test the pH, ammonia, temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrie and nitrate levels.
- Run a panel of chemical tests

The reason for doing these steps in order is to save time and money, definitive tests are very expensive and you don't want to have to call in specialists to consult a problem if it is something very simple like needed to add more bacterial supplement or add in more plants. 

Organisms living around or in the water play a role because certain algaes are indications of clean water or polluted water. Amphibians are also factors that tell you that the water is clean.