Mike; Finally got some time to myself and I'm sitting here watching the wreck; I mean race, at Dover.
I just pick a couple of dates at random to look at the water quality on the CB Interactive Buoy System. Whenever I think about it, I plug in the numbers to my spreadsheet, hoping to see a pattern. Here are some numbers:
Beginning of the yr; cold water; no snow melt or sewage problem. I would assume these are as good as the numbers get
.
Pat=Patapsco A=Annapolis G=Gooses Pot=Potomac
Date Buoy Dissolved O2 Turbidity
1/23/12 A 12.08 5.24
G 12.35 1.9
Pot 11.93 1.75
2/10/12 Pat 12.16 7.94
A 14.5 2.52
G offline offline
Pot 12.7 1.29
Just before and during Trophy season
4/2/12 Pat 10.41 5.04
A 12.24 6.98
G 10.28 5
Pot 9.79 2.71
4/29/12 Pat 15.43 5.6
A 11.72 3.08
G 9.78 4.3
Pot 8.49 2.11
After the poop spill?
5/27/12 Pat 6.82 3.42
A 6.99 5.24
G 9.8 2.1
Pot 6.82 3.42
6/3/12 Pat 7.29 5.64
A 6.05 7.72
G 8.21 3
Pot 6.92 3.42
So; you want the O2 number to be HIGH and the Turbidity number to be LOW.
By looking at the numbers; I'm going to GUESS that I want the O2 number to be greater than 8.
And, I want the turbidity number to be less than 5.
We can clearly see the impact of warmer water and poop plant discharge. Now let's see how the numbers react to the latest rainfall. It usually takes days after the rain to change the turbidity and maybe weeks to affect the O2 levels. Look at it this way, after the rain, the influx of debris and sediment may take a few days to come down from Pa. or the susky. All the nutrients come down with the debris. We then have an algae bloom (maybe 7-10 days later), but it's when the algae bloom falls to the bottom of the bay and begins to decay that the O2 levels are affected.
At least that's my understanding. If this is incorrect, please feel free to inform me and others of the process.
I don't know if this helps you any, but it's all I've got
.
5th (Marty)