DETERMINATION OF WATER QUALITY OF NATURAL WATER SOURCES IN STATE PARKS AROUND THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER VALLEY

Water samples from state parks around the Susquehanna River Valley were tested in order to collect baseline quality data. The water was tested for turbidity, conductivity, pH, and dissolved oxygen in situ before collecting samples using standard sampling procedures. Heavy metals were tested using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and anions and simple cations were analyzed using ion chromatography. Filtered portions of each sample were titrated with both sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid to test for acidity and alkalinity, respectively. These data were collected in order to create an environmental “snapshot” for each park to be compared to later studies to assess the environmental impact of future events on these state parks. The water in most parks was shown to have little fluctuation in measurements except for varying levels of iron concentration. Additionally, the water samples from the two state parks with dams, Locust Lake and Tuscarora, were shown to have spikes in manganese concentration as the water flowed through the dams.