Level 3 Stream Survey results for Sleepy Creek at Creek Road on 8-29-2015, 10 am.

Participants: Jeff Iliff, Norman Dean, Chuck Marsh, and Leslie Millbourn.

Latitude: 39-29-32  Longitude: 78-16-32

Water temp: 19  c. , Dissolved Oxygen: 10 Mg/l,  Dissolved Solids: 170 ppm

Habitat conditions: 165 Sub optimal

Biological conditions: 81 Optimal*

*After looking at the results (67.6 suboptimal) and scrutinizing our test locations for the first sample, a second sample of macroinvertebrates (underwater bugs or ‘critters’) was preformed under the same weather conditions six days later on 9-4-15 at sites that were more representative of the reach.  The results of this second sample are: Low tolerance: 113 of 10 types, Medium: 88 of 6 types, High tolerance: 30 of 6 types, resulting in a Biological Conditions score of 81, which is in the Optimal range.

In the first sample there were 93 low tolerance benthic macroinvertebrates  represented by 7 types, 109 ‘critters’ of 5 types in the medium tolerance category, and 16 bugs of 2 types in the high tolerance category.

Click on our ‘Stream Monitoring’ category (to the right) to see stream monitoring results for other Sleepy Creek Locations this year, as well as a deeper explanation of the process in a posting called, “What is stream monitoring and what do the numbers mean?”