Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Dr. Paula Lessem

Abstract

The Tuckahoe Creek has been classified impaired by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) indicating that one of the following parameters exceed the accepted limits: pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), phosphates, nitrates, and concentration of fecal coliforms. Throughout the course of this study, two selected sites have been monitored monthly in order to measure these parameters. Route 288 is located near a construction site, and Route 621 is near Sycamore Creek Golf Course in a more rural area. The results from this study have shown that the fecal coliforms have been uniformly within the set legal limit of 1,000 fecal coliform cells per lOOml of water at both sites. The dissolved oxygen (DO) for Route 621 has been within the legal and optimal levels of 5mg 02/L during August 2002-November 2002 but dropped to 1.75mg 02/L during December 2002-March 2003. The DO from Route 288 has been extremely low with an average of 1.23 mg 02/L during the monitoring period of December 2002-March 2003. This project also studied the effect of these waters on the induction of antibiotic resistance. However, induction by Staphylococcus aureus 9144 has not been demonstrated. Monitoring these sites is part of a larger study since the Tuckahoe Creek feeds into the James River, which then feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. Restoring Tuckahoe to VA DEQ set standards is an important part of the Preserve the Bay project.

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