GUIDE QUESTIONS:
1. Could pesticides and herbicides have washed into the river from a nearby golf course?
2. Could some long-forgotten toxic material in a landfill leaked into the river?
3. Could barrels at the river bottom containing chemical residues from a cement industry be rusting and oozing toxins?
4. Could it also be caused by the waste discharges of the South Fork sewage treatment plant?
5. Were the fishes poisoned by the gaseous compounds, like carbon dioxide & carbon monoxide, from the exhausts of motors from a testing facility of an outboard motor company located near the river?
6. Or, could it also be caused by chromium emission in the atmosphere by a certain chemical industry that uses natural gas and coal?
a) analyze water samples for toxic organic compounds and metals and trace the possible sources of these identified toxic compounds and metals.
b) compare the quantitative results of the analysis with the tolerable limits set by the EPA.
At the end of your analysis, you should be able to narrow down a number of possible culprits to only two toxic compounds which you firmly believe to have caused the fish kill. You must cite the sources of these two compounds and how they detrimentally affect the body system of the fishes.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/fisheries/420-252/420-252.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-ioc/nitrates.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-ioc/lead.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-ioc/cyanide.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-ioc/thallium.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-ioc/mercury.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-soc/atrazine.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-soc/dalapon.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-soc/glyphosa.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/c-ioc/chromium.html
http://www.carbonmonoxidekills.com/coinformation.htm
http://www.cleanairprogress.org/classroom/glossary.asp#carbon
