U.S. Water News Online
FORT MITCHELL, Ky. -- Five days, 530 miles and four states, all on a boat. A dozen college students and professors hit the water recently for River Run 2002, the second consecutive study measuring the health of the Ohio River.
The group started in Pittsburgh and finished at the Markland Dam 30 miles downriver from Cincinnati. The two boats stopped every five miles to take water samples and every 25 miles for sediment and zebra mussel tests. Their journey took them through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
Biology students and professors from the University of Cincinnati, Marshall University, Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More College also collected samples from every river, creek and tributary that feeds into the Ohio River. They tested for bacteria, chemicals, algae and zebra mussels.
The results are scheduled to be released Nov. 6-8 at the Ohio River Basin Consortium for Research and Education at Northern Kentucky University.
Organizers said comparing the results with those gathered last year could help educate lawmakers, environmentalists and boaters about the biological status of the busy channel.
Joey Van Skaik, a 20-year-old Thomas More student, said he is looking forward to studying zebra mussels, a species accidentally introduced to the Great Lakes that inadvertently helped water quality in the lakes but caused other ecological problems, including spreading rapidly to other bodies of water.
Diane McCubbin, a 32-year-old doctoral student from University of Cincinnati who participated last year, said the best part was ``getting out of the lab and back into the field.'' She tested for nutrients in the water.
McCubbin, Skaik and the others worked in three-person teams. The small motorboats, sporting their school flags, cruised into Hockingport and Middleport, Ohio, before reaching Maysville and Dayton, Ky.
``This is a natural resource that a lot of people take for granted,'' said Aaron Farrell, 20, a biology student at Thomas More. ``We need to take care of it and stop polluting it to protect it.''
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