It’s a muggy and foggy Monday morning in August as Keri Maull and Andy Nitkowski board a boat at the Delaware Bay Launch Service in Milford. The boat shoves off and sails out onto the Delaware Bay, miles offshore past oil tankers like the Sonangol Cabinda.
Maull, a laboratory manager with the Environmental Laboratory Section within the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Water, and Nitkowski, an environmental control technician, will spend the next four hours collecting water samples from the bay using a variety of contraptions.
This exercise is the boat run, a monthly water-quality monitoring program. It is overseen by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), an interstate-federal compact consisting of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and the federal government. The DRBC contracts with DNREC to take water samples from the mouth of the Delaware Bay up to the head of tide in Trenton, New Jersey.
“We develop the scope of work, so we indicate where we want to monitor, what parameters, and we issue that contract to DNREC and they carry it out on our behalf. Then we scrutinize the data. The data informs a lot of our assessment activities so that’s the main function of it,” said John Yagecic, DRBC manager of water quality assessment.
Samples are collected at 22 different stations to check water quality, with a careful eye toward meeting certain criteria for things like dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, and bacteria levels.
Launched in 1967, the Delaware Estuary Water Quality Monitoring Program, as it’s more formally known, is one of the longest-running water quality monitoring programs in the world, according to the DRBC.
“Because the Delaware River has drinking water intakes up and down the river from New York to Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, they need that water tested to ensure they’re not delivering polluted water to people who are drinking it,” explained David McQuaid, supervisor for the Division of Water’s Environmental Laboratory, with Maull noting that many people use the river and bay for recreational activities like fishing and boating too.
It’s been performed by DNREC for decades and takes place in various conditions. The water on this morning’s run, according to Maull and Nitkowski, is much calmer than the prior month’s iteration — a welcome change.
The DRBC sampling takes place every month from March to October. While two people — in this case Maull and Nitkowski — go out from Milford, two more leave from Smyrna and travel up to Trenton, stopping at various intervals to collect samples from the river.
Maull uses a series of hoses to pump water from the river into several small jars, while Nitkowski scoops some up in a bucket and transfers it to containers of his own. He also uses a secchidisk, a black and white disk on a rope that he dips into the river to measure water clarity. At each stop, Nitkowski carefully records his results on a data sheet before instructing the boat captain to head off to the next designated point for sample collection.
The locations they’ll be stopping at before heading back are south of Brown’s Shoal, south of Joe Flogger Shoal, the Elbow of Crossledge, Mahon River and Ship John Light.
While the locations have remained the same for years, the parameters do change from year to year on a rotating schedule.
Samples are analyzed by DNREC, but some samples are also sent to the New Jersey Department of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other cooperating partners.
“We don’t interpret results,” Maull noted — that’s reserved for the DRBC.
Because of the boat run’s longevity, there is a lot of data that can be reviewed, enabling the detection of trends.
“Having that long-term data is very useful to us now because we get to see over a long period of record how things have changed,” Yagecic said, pointing to dissolved oxygen levels as something that has seen dramatic improvement.
Dissolved oxygen is important because it is required for organisms like fish to thrive. Large algal blooms can lead to lower levels of dissolved oxygen, which can cause die-offs, especially toward the bottom of the water column.
The boat run helps determine whether the Delaware River will be listed as impaired in specific categories, such as if it has high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls.
“This is one of our critical ways of keeping eyes on the river,” Yagecic said. “This is our opportunity to measure the river and compare those measurements to criteria and see if we’re meeting criteria. So, it’s one of the fundamental tools that we use to know the condition of the river and whether that condition is good, bad or otherwise.”
Data can be viewed via the U.S. EPA’s Water Quality Data Portal. Bacteria data can also be viewed on the DRBC’s website, along with additional program information, at nj.gov/drbc/programs/quality/boat-run.html.
Ni asubuhi ya Jumatatu yenye mvua na ukungu mnamo Agosti wakati Keri Maull na Andy Nitkowski wanapanda mashua katika Huduma ya Uzinduzi wa Ghuba ya Delaware huko Milford. Meli hiyo ilisafiri kwa kasi hadi kwenye Ghuba ya Delaware, karibu na meli za mafuta za Sonangol Cabinda. Maul, meneja wa maabara katika Idara ya Maabara ya Mazingira ya Idara ya Rasilimali Asili ya Delaware na Idara ya Maji ya Udhibiti wa Mazingira, na Nitkowski, fundi wa udhibiti wa mazingira, watatumia masaa manne ijayo kukusanya sampuli za maji kutoka Ghuba ya Delaware kwa kutumia vifaa mbalimbali. Hii ni mazoezi ya kukimbia kwa mashua, programu ya kila mwezi ya kufuatilia ubora wa maji. Tume ya Bonde la Mto Delaware (DRBC) ni shirika la serikali za kati la Marekani linalojumuisha jimbo la Delaware, New Jersey, New York na serikali ya Marekani. DRBC na DNREC wanafanya mikataba ya kuchukua sampuli za maji kutoka mdomo wa Ghuba ya Delaware hadi kichwa cha maji huko Trenton, New Jersey. "Tunaendelea na kazi yetu, kwa hivyo tunaonyesha ni wapi tunataka kufuatilia, ni vigezo gani, na tunatoa mkataba huo kwa DNREC na wanafanya kwa niaba yetu. """ Kisha tunachunguza kwa makini data hizo. "Hii ni moja ya sababu za kuvutia zaidi za kuvutia, ""alisema John Yagecic, meneja wa DRBC wa tathmini ya ubora wa maji." Kwa mfano, katika vituo 22 vya kuchunguza maji, sampuli zinahesabiwa ili kuhakikisha kwamba maji hayo yana viwango vya oksijeni iliyoyeyuka, pH, joto, na viwango vya bakteria. Programu ya Ufuatiliaji wa Ubora wa Maji ya Delaware, iliyoanzishwa mnamo 1967, ni moja ya programu za muda mrefu zaidi za ufuatiliaji wa ubora wa maji ulimwenguni. "Kwa sababu Mto Delaware una maji ya kunywa juu na chini ya mto kutoka New York hadi Philadelphia na Camden, New Jersey, wanahitaji maji hayo kupimwa ili kuhakikisha kuwa hawapatii maji machafu kwa watu wanaoyanywa, ""alieleza David McQuaid, msimamizi wa Idara ya Maji ya Maabara ya Mazingira, na Maull akibainisha kwamba watu wengi hutumia mto na ghuba kwa shughuli za burudani kama uvuvi na mashua pia." Imekuwa ikifanywa na DNREC kwa miongo mingi na hufanyika katika hali mbalimbali. Maji juu ya asubuhi hii's kukimbia, kulingana na Maull na Nitkowski, ni utulivu sana kuliko iteration mwezi uliopita'mabadiliko ya kufurahisha. Mfano wa DRBC hufanywa kila mwezi kuanzia Machi hadi Oktoba. Wakati watu wawili - katika kesi hii Maull na Nitkowski - kwenda nje ya Milford, wawili zaidi kuondoka kutoka Smyrna na kusafiri hadi Trenton, kuacha katika vipindi mbalimbali kukusanya sampuli kutoka mto. Maul hutumia mfululizo wa mabomba ya maji kuingiza maji kutoka mto katika chupa kadhaa ndogo, wakati Nitkowski hukusanya maji katika ndoo na kuyahamisha kwenye vyombo vyake mwenyewe. Pia anatumia diski nyeusi na nyeupe iliyofungwa kwenye kamba na kuiingiza ndani ya mto ili kupima usafi wa maji. Katika kila kituo, Nitkowski anaandika kwa uangalifu matokeo yake kwenye karatasi ya data kabla ya kumwagiza nahodha wa mashua aende kwenye kituo kingine cha kukusanya sampuli. Maeneo watakuwa kusimamishwa katika kabla ya kichwa nyuma ni kusini ya Brown Shoal, kusini ya Joe Flogger Shoal, Elbow ya Crossledge, Mto Mahon na Ship John Mwanga. Wakati maeneo yamebaki sawa kwa miaka, vigezo hubadilika kutoka mwaka hadi mwaka kwenye ratiba ya mzunguko. Kwa mfano, DNREC inatoa sampuli za afya kwa Idara ya Afya ya New Jersey, Idara ya Kitaifa ya Bahari na Atmosphere, na washirika wengine. "Hatufasiri matokeo", Maull alibainisha "ambayo ni reservation kwa DRBC. Kwa sababu ya muda mrefu wa kukimbia kwa mashua, kuna data nyingi ambazo zinaweza kukaguliwa, kuwezesha kugundua mwenendo. "Kuwa na data ya muda mrefu ni muhimu sana kwetu sasa kwa sababu tunapata kuona kwa kipindi kirefu cha rekodi jinsi mambo yamebadilika, ""Yagecic alisema, akionyesha viwango vya oksijeni vilivyomalizika kama kitu ambacho kimeona uboreshaji mkubwa." Oksijeni iliyomwagika ni muhimu kwa sababu inahitajika ili viumbe kama vile samaki viweze kusitawi. Maua makubwa ya mwani yanaweza kusababisha viwango vya chini vya oksijeni iliyoyeyuka, ambayo inaweza kusababisha vifo, hasa kuelekea chini ya safu ya maji. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Mto Delaware"" ni mto wa maji ya chini ya kiwango cha polychlorinated biphenyls." "Hii ni moja ya njia zetu muhimu za kuweka macho kwenye mto", Yagecic alisema. <unk>Hii ni fursa yetu ya kupima mto na kulinganisha vipimo hivyo na vigezo na kuona kama tunakidhi vigezo. "Hii ni moja ya njia za msingi za kujua hali ya mto na kama hali hiyo ni nzuri, mbaya au vinginevyo, data inaweza kutazamwa kupitia ""Ubora wa Maji Data Portal"" ya EPA." Data ya bakteria pia inaweza kutazamwa kwenye tovuti ya DRBC, pamoja na habari ya ziada ya programu, katika nj.gov.drbc.programs.quality.boat.run.html.