National Context
How Stream Quality is Measured
On the way home from dropping off Joe at Bill Brown's Baseball Camp at George Mason University, Mabel and I walked the Accotink trail off of Danbury Forest Drive. Mabel pressed forward excitedly, because we hadn't walked this stretch of the the trail in a while. Out destination was a place just past the trail's overpass at Braddock Road. where I periodically collect gratitude stones.
I have always been curious about the corrugated cylinder with a solar cell located there. Today, blocking our entrance to my stone collecting site, there were two pick up trucks, a red dual-wheel chevy with a camper top, and a smaller truck, with a young man wearing a white USGS tee-shirt. I engaged him in conversation and learned that the cylinder measures the height of the stream. The solar cell is used to power a transmitter that sends data to a satellite uplink. The young scientist and his lab partner were collecting and processing water quality samples to be sent to a lab for analysis.
I reflected about how much I learn and the interesting people Mabel and I meet on our dog walks and how I need to start carrying a camera.
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