Lower Olentangy Watershed

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Lower Olentangy Watershed

• Sarah Kelley
• Dominique Pope
• Kiah Lotus

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The Lower Olentangy Watershed

• The lower Olentangy watershed includes 4
  counties, Union, Madison, Franklin, and Delaware.
• The majority of the watershed is in Franklin
  county, but also encompasses areas of Madison,
  Delaware and Union counties. Most of Columbus is
  located within this watershed.
• The major sources of impairment are nutrient
  enrichment and habitat/flow alterations.

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Lower Olentangy Watershed Map
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Land Use of the Lower Olentangy

• The majority of this watershed is an urban area.
• There are twelve sampling stations along the
  Olentangy River.
• Six of the stations are in city areas, six are
  in non-city areas.

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Lower Olentangy Watershed Photos
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HYPOTHESIS 1

• We think that when a farmer puts fertilizer on
  his/her crops, the rain washes it down into the
  stream causing the biological oxygen demand (BOD)
  to rise in rural areas.
• Fertilizers (nutrients) increase vegetation,
  which decay and attract bacteria. Bacteria
  consume oxygen, increasing the BOD. High BOD is
  unfavorable for life.

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Biological Oxygen Demand
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RESULTS

• We found out that our hypothesis was supported,
  because the data shows higher BOD in rural areas
  where there is more farming and fertilizer runoff.

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HYPOTHESIS 2

• We think that there will be more sediments (total
  suspended solids or TSS) in city waterways then
  in agricultural waterways due to river
  straightening and habitat destruction.

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Total Suspended Sediments
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RESULTS

• This hypothesis was disproved, because there
  turned out to be more sediment in the non-city
  areas.
• We believe this has happened because farmers are
  plowing to the edge of their land. This is
  causing the erosion of the banks.

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HYPOTHESIS 3

• We believe that the lower the quality of the
  habitat (measured by QHEI, the quantitative
  habitat index), the lower the ICI count.
• ICI is a measure of the amount of invertebrates
  in the water.
• A healthier system has a higher ICI count.

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QHEI (Quantitative Habitat Evaluation Index) vs.
ICI
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RESULTS

• The hypothesis was supported by this data. When
  the QHEI went up, the ICI count went up.
  Therefore, the better the habitat, the healthier
  the community.

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DEVIATIONS

• We separated the sampling stations into city and
  rural. Each category was mostly consistent
  except for two stations that showed large
  deviations, stations 159 and 86.

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ICI and Maximum pH Values in City and Farm
Sampling Stations
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HYPOTHESES

• Station 86 shows very high levels of nutrients
  and high BOD levels, perhaps due to high
  concentrations of farming in the area.
• The EPA reports that the area of the watershed
  where station 159 is located is polluted with a
  lot of wastewater runoff.

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CONCLUSION

• We chose to study the Lower Olentangy Watershed,
  which had some healthy and impaired areas.
• Based on class/group discussions and our field
  trip experience, we formed three hypothesis.
• Runoff of fertilizer from crops impairs water
  quality.
• River modification in urban areas increases
  sediment.
• Better quality habitats lead to healthier
  ecosystems.

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CONCLUSION

• We looked at the water shed maps and graphed data
  values to test our hypotheses.
• We found biological oxygen demand was greater in
  rural areas which supported hypothesis 1.
• We found total sentiment suspension was greater
  in urban areas which made hypothesis 2 wrong.
• We found that ICI does increase with better
  quality habitats.

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We would like to Thank

• Chaperones
• Lori Summers, Paula Williams, Fen Lewis, Virginie
  Bouchard, Sharon Schraegle, Shannon Schraegle,
  Kelly Dufore
• Naturalists
• Carrie, Elisse, Tim, and Greg
• Organizers
• Sue Brown and Elaine Landwehr
• Instructors/Panelists/Speakers
• Steve Gordon, Virginie Bouchard, Lori Summers,
  Kathryn Kelley, Bettina Bair, Debra Haley, Sushma
  Joshi, Charlotte Elster, Gabrielle Gordon, Maria
  Palazzi, Barbara Woodall, Leslie Southern, and
  Kay Howell
• Videographers
• Kevin and Jason
• YWSI 2000 Friends