Hydrocarbon Pollution Around Lake Murray

School Name

Chapin High School

Grade Level

11th Grade

Presentation Topic

Environmental Science

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Abstract

According to SC DNR (Department of Natural Resources) director Robert Boyles, “South Carolina now has more than 361 thousand registered boats. This represents a nearly 21 thousand vessel increase in the past year.” One question that could be asked because of this is “To What Extent Is the Water Surrounding Marinas and Boat Ramps Polluted by Hydrocarbons Compared to Other Areas Around Lake Murray?” To test how this increase affected the levels of hydrocarbon pollution, several areas around Lake Murray, a local lake, had samples taken of them under different labels: open water, undeveloped coves, marinas, and boat ramps. BCI (Basic Concepts Incorporated) Hydrocarbon Test strips were then submerged in the samples to test for hydrocarbons. Next, photos of the strips were uploaded to a color processing website and analyzed for the RGB values of their darkest spots. Each value, R, G, & B, was then analyzed using an ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) test. No significance was found between the levels of hydrocarbon pollution and location. In order to validate the results, several other tests were conducted to ensure the strips were effective and this was confirmed, as one drop of gasoline was enough to activate the strips in 10mL of water. This could be because there were very few boats on the lake, as the samples were collected on a winter day (although still on the hottest day available). An alternate conclusion is simply that hydrocarbon pollution, in the wintertime, is not a very big issue.

Location

RITA 154

Start Date

3-23-2024 9:30 AM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 23rd, 9:30 AM

Hydrocarbon Pollution Around Lake Murray

RITA 154

According to SC DNR (Department of Natural Resources) director Robert Boyles, “South Carolina now has more than 361 thousand registered boats. This represents a nearly 21 thousand vessel increase in the past year.” One question that could be asked because of this is “To What Extent Is the Water Surrounding Marinas and Boat Ramps Polluted by Hydrocarbons Compared to Other Areas Around Lake Murray?” To test how this increase affected the levels of hydrocarbon pollution, several areas around Lake Murray, a local lake, had samples taken of them under different labels: open water, undeveloped coves, marinas, and boat ramps. BCI (Basic Concepts Incorporated) Hydrocarbon Test strips were then submerged in the samples to test for hydrocarbons. Next, photos of the strips were uploaded to a color processing website and analyzed for the RGB values of their darkest spots. Each value, R, G, & B, was then analyzed using an ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) test. No significance was found between the levels of hydrocarbon pollution and location. In order to validate the results, several other tests were conducted to ensure the strips were effective and this was confirmed, as one drop of gasoline was enough to activate the strips in 10mL of water. This could be because there were very few boats on the lake, as the samples were collected on a winter day (although still on the hottest day available). An alternate conclusion is simply that hydrocarbon pollution, in the wintertime, is not a very big issue.