13. Is the Water Quality of Walnut Creek Affected by its Proximity to the Elachee Nature Science Center?

Abstract

The Elachee Nature Science Center is an educational outreach institution in Gainesville, Georgia. Out of the seven creeks leading into Lake Chicopee that are located at Elachee, we chose to study Walnut Creek due to its position closest to the Geiger Pavilion within the nature center. Walnut Creek provides key services to the ecosystem including a source for hydration, transportation of nutrients, and habitation for various organisms. We want to find out if human development at Elachee negatively impacts the quality of these services due to factors such as past renovations, human interaction, and subsequent erosion. We plan to reach out to Elachee and participate in volunteer work for allowing us to use their institution for our scientific inquiry. We intend to assess the water quality of Walnut Creek using three measures— oxygen content, conductivity, and pH. We will take water samples at consistent intervals up and downstream from the Geiger Pavilion and compare these measurements based on their locations. We predict that the water quality will decrease as Walnut Creek passes the Geiger Pavilion; we also predict that there will be a positive relationship between the sample’s water quality and its distance from the pavilion. Our results will tell us what impact the existence and usage of Elachee facilities has on Walnut Creek’s water provisions with respect to our three measurements. With this new-found knowledge that we will attain through our research, we will have a better understanding of how Elachee affects the water quality of nearby water sources.