Schuylkill River Research Articles

Power of the Line: Shared-Use Path Conflict Reduction

Painting a yellow center line at blind curves on a busy multiuser path (bicyclists, pedestrians, in-line skaters, runners) decreased the percentage of people who “went the wrong way” on the path, in a before-and-after study whose sample size was 2,147. A busy 3.6-m (12-ft) paved recreational and commuting path in Philadelphia circles the Schuylkill River for 13.5 km (8.4 mi). There are numerous blind curves caused by hedges, rock outcrops, and bridge piers. Many people were traveling on the wrong side around sharp blind curves. Counts were taken and video-tapes made in order to determine the percentage of bicyclists, pedestrians, in-line skaters, and runners on the proper side, on the wrong side, and passing on the wrong side. Then a solid-yellow center line and directional arrows were neatly spray painted at the blind curves, and after counts were taken. The percentage of wrong-side travel fell from 35 percent to 15 percent, a 57 percent reduction. White lines and arrows were placed at driveways and road crossings. The white lines reduced wrongway travel from 30 percent to 10 percent, a reduction of 66 percent. Painted center lines kept people on the proper side and reduced the likelihood of conflicts and crashes. Paint is easy, fast, and inexpensive, and creates no physical obstacle; it is hard to damage and it works without education of the public.

Biomarkers Indicate Health Problems in Brown Bullheads from the Industrialized Schuylkill River, Philadelphia

We used biomarkers to assess the health of two populations of brown bullheads Ameiurus nebulosus one from an urban, industrialized section of the Schuylkill River (SR), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the other from Hopkins Pond (HP), in suburban New Jersey, which was not affected by industry. We evaluated health using histopathology, condition factor (K), hepatosomal index (HSI), prevalence of parasites, health assessment index (HAI), and population age structure. Sediment analysis revealed that both sites contained similar levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Brown bullheads from the SR were longer and heavier than brown bullheads from HP and exhibited more external lesions. There were no hepatic lesions in brown bullheads from either site. Condition factor was higher in SR fish, but due to length differences between the two populations, was not a reliable indicator of general health. Hepatosomal index was similar between both populations, although the presence of numerous cestodes in the visceral organs, including the liver, of HP brown bullheads confounded the interpretation of the HSI. The incidence of parasitism was significantly greater in HP fish than in SR fish. The HAI was significantly greater in SR brown bullheads, indicating more organ abnormalities in SR fish than in HP fish, including more abnormalities of the fins, barbels, and mouth. Population age structure was older for HP brown bullheads than for SR fish, indicating a shorter lifetime for SR brown bullheads. Although PAH levels were similar between the two sites, SR brown bullheads were less healthy than HP brown bullheads, as indicated by several biomarkers. Histopathology, health assessment index, and population age structure were the most informative biomarkers.

Spatial Variation and Historical Change in Fish Communities of the Schuylkill River Drainage, Southeast Pennsylvania

The use of fish communities to evaluate stream habitat typically requires that the community at a target site be compared with concurrently or recently sampled reference communities at nearby sites. For this approach to be effective, spatial and temporal variation in the reference communities of a region must both be known. This study relates 307 recent (1976–1994) fish survey records in the Schuylkill River drainage, southeastern Pennsylvania, to four concurrent measures of water chemistry (pH, conductivity, alkalinity, hardness), two measurements of stream size (stream order, stream width) and three variables describing site position within the drainage network (elevation, link number and C-link number defined herein). Based on canonical correspondence analysis, stream size and position within the watershed influenced fish species composition more strongly than did water chemistry. Species richness, dominated by the families Cyprinidae (minnows) and Centrarchidae (sunfishes), increased from a median of four species in 1st-order streams to 21 species in 5th-order streams. Secondly, recent frequencies of occurrence are compared to frequencies inferred from historical collections using log-linear analysis. Nine species have increased in frequency, while the frequencies of eight species have declined. Eighteen species, or about ⅓ of the recent community, have been introduced. All but three of these introduced species were absent from collections before 1931, and many are now widespread. Several previously common species associated with clear, vegetated streams are now uncommon or rare (e.g., Esox americanus americanus, Notropis bifrenatus); one species, N. chalybaeus, was not found in the recent dataset. Substantial historical changes in the fish community thus accompany the influences of stream habitat and location in determining species composition at sites within the drainage.

Thomas Eakins: The Rowing Pictures

During the 1870s, rowing because a tremendously popular sport in the United States. An enthusiastic rower, the young Philadelphia-born Thomas Eakins painted, sketched, and drew an extraordinary series of rowing pictures that were the most ambitious project of his early career. He brought to the theme his personal experiences as an avid amateur rower on his beloved Schuylkill River, and a scientific understanding of the physical effort involved. His 24 rowing works, which include some of the most celebrated and recognized images in the history of American art, are brought together and examined as a group for the first time in this beautiful book. They shed light on the artist's creative process and subsequent achievements as well as on social, cultural, and artistic concerns central to nineteenth-century audiences. Helen A. Cooper, along with essayists Martin A. Berger, Christina Currie, and Amy B. Werbel discuss various aspects of Eakins' rowing series, explaining his affection for the sport, his adoption of the images of popular culture into the realm of fine art, his commitment to novel, modern subjects, his preoccupation with perspective and measurement, and his belief that the most profound artistic truths were best expressed through the human figure - particularly the male figure. Just as sculling is dependent upon precision, practice and unwavering dedication, so the paintings were constructed from scrupulous observation of details and intense preparation. In the less than four years in which the rowing pictures were created, Eakins moved subtly from the analytic and descriptive toward the more intuitive and suggestive.

Model uncertainty and model aggregation in environmental management

This paper presents dynamic programming formulations for addressing model and parameter uncertainty in environmental management problems. To address the inherent uncertainty surrounding the mathematical modelling of a physical system, we present ways to aggregate information from multiple simulation models into a dynamic programming framework. Aggregation methods are based on minimizing the extent or frequency of standard level violation, as predicted by the simulation models. Different formulations aggregate information from the multiple simulation models through extreme value, summation, risk averse and risk seeking approaches. A second basic type of uncertainty, parameter value uncertainty, is addressed by considering selected input parameters as random variables. Monte Carlo simulations are then performed to generate one-step Markov transition matrices for use in stochastic versions of the optimization models. In developing the optimization models, two types of problem feasibility are identified: nominal or first stage feasibility and secondary feasibility. Variants on the basic multiple model methodologies highlight subtleties in the definition of feasibility in multiple model cases. The methodologies are demonstrated in a water quality management example for the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania.

Meeting the Goal of Biological Integrity in Water-Resource Programs in the US Environmental Protection Agency

Meeting the Goal of Biological Integrity in Water-Resource Programs in the US Environmental Protection Agency

Franz Joseph Märter, Travel Companion of Johann David Schöpf in a Journey From Philadelphia to Florida and the Bahamas in 1783-1784

Two years before Johann David Schöpf (1752-1800) published his Beyträge … (1787), Franz Joseph Märter (1753-1827) sent letters from Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and East-Florida to Ignaz von Born, describing plants, animals, and geological features of the newly independent states. These letters were speedily printed in Physikalische Arbeiten … in Vienna (1785). A last letter sent from the Bahamas appeared in the same periodical in 1786. Märter's geological observations are translated and analyzed here for the first time. His descriptions of various rocks along the Schuylkill River, upstream from Philadelphia (granites, limestones, marble quarries, widespread weathered iron ores), and his interpretation of the fossiliferous sandstones in the Appalachian mountains are very similar to those by Schöpf. So are Märter's observations of shell banks, either exposed in ditches many miles from the sea, or in cliffs at Yorktown, Virginia, and Wilmington, North Carolina, as well as his description of granite and of a large coal mine near Richmond, Virginia. Finally, both travelers noticed that the rocky cliffs in the Bahamas consisted of limestone formed by Muschelsand [beachrock]. We established that Märter and Schöpf traveled together from Philadelphia to the Bahamas (November 1783 to March 1784). But neither acknowledged the influence, or at least the presence of the other, probably for political reasons.

Stochastic dynamic programming models for water quality management

This paper presents optimization models for waste load allocation from multiple point sources which include both parameter (Type II) and model (Type I) uncertainty. These optimization models employ more sophisticated water quality simulation models, for example, in the case of dissolved oxygen modeling, QUAL2E and WASP4, than is typically the norm in studies on the optimization of waste load allocation. Variability in selected input parameters to the water quality simulation models gives rise to stochastic dynamic programming approaches. Two types of reliability and feasibility attributes are highlighted, associated with the management options that are generated. Several dissolved oxygen simulation models are incorporated into the optimization procedures to explore the effects of Type I uncertainty on control decisions. Information from simultaneous consideration of multiple simulation models is aggregated in the dynamic programming framework through two regret‐based formulations. By accommodating both model and parameter uncertainty in the modeling framework, trade‐offs can be generated between the two so as to assess their influence on control decisions. The models are applied to a waste load allocation problem for the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania.

“The Fairmount Waterworks, 1812–1911,” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Exhibit Reviews “THE FAIRMOUNT WATERWORKS, 1812-1911,” AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART DONALD C. JACKSON Although not the first municipal waterworks in the United States (a distinction belonging to the Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), the Fairmount Waterworks is probably the most re­ nowned American public works construction of the 19th century. Alarmed by the yellow fever epidemics of 1793 and 1798, in the latter year Philadelphia’s civic leaders accepted Benjamin Latrobe’s pro­ posal for building a steam-powered pumping plant to distribute water from the Schuylkill River on the western edge of the city. Latrobe’s Center Square Waterworks began operating in 1801 and, despite high fuel costs, minimal storage capacity, and mechanical operating diffi­ culties, it provided service for more than a decade. But by 1811 the city’s Watering Committee was seeking to replace the Center Square facility with a larger, more efficient plant. Consequently, Frederick Graff (with assistance from John Davis) set out to develop a new waterworks on the Schuylkill at the foot of a prominent rise known as Fairmount. Graff’s plan involved pumping water up to a sizable reservoir on top of Fairmount and then letting it flow by gravity to users throughout the city. Construction of the initial steam-powered Fairmount system started in mid-1812 and regular service com­ menced on September 7, 1815. Although subjected to major techno­ logical changes and expansion, including conversion from steam to waterpower in the early 1820s, the Fairmount Waterworks served city residents for almost 100 years. Pollution problems and expanding municipal needs finally rendered the plant obsolete, and in 1911 the city authorized conversion of the site to other uses. Today, the complex is a much-beloved part of the city’s Fairmount Park, and Graff’s brainchild recently benefited from a major archiDr . Jackson is the author of Great American Bridges and Dams (Washington, D.C.: Preservation Press, 1988). He is a research fellow with the Transformation of Philadelphia project at the University of Pennsylvania, studying the history of bridges and transportation in the Delaware Valley before 1850.© 1989 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/89/3003-0004$01.00 635 636 Donald C. Jackson tectural restoration effort sponsored by the Fairmount Park Commis­ sion, the Philadelphia Water Department, and the Junior League of Philadelphia. In concert with this, the Philadelphia Museum of Art staged an impressive temporary exhibit to “help focus attention on the history and future of one of the city’s most charming landmarks.” To say the least, the museum offers an ideal setting for the exhibit because it is only a few hundred yards from the waterworks and sits directly on the site of the former reservoir. Open to the public for a two-month period during the summer of 1988, the Fairmount exhibit was simply mounted in a large rectangular room. Organized under the direction of curator Darrell Sewell, with Jane Mork Gibson providing historical research and writing, it was not a fancy or complicated installation. However, the chronological ar­ rangement of prints, paintings, photographs, drawings, sculpture, and other memorabilia around the room provided a clear overview of the waterworks’ historical development from the Center Square era through its conversion into an aquarium in 1911 (see fig. 1). Drawn from a variety of sources, including the art museum’s own collection, the Franklin Institute Science Museum, the Historical Society of Penn­ sylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Atwater Kent Museum, the American Philosophical Society, and the Commissioners of Fairmount Park, over 120 items were integrated into the final exhibit. The exhibit did not include any schematic drawings or graphics to supplement the historic artifacts and help explain operation of the waterworks system. Perhaps a techno­ logical museum would have taken a different tack in this regard, but the exhibit as presented did not suffer from the curator’s decision to exclude new descriptive material. Visually, the most compelling artifacts were two emblematic figures commissioned by the city’s Watering Committee in the 1820s to decorate the exterior of the newly built mill house. Executed by the American artist William Rush, these painted...

On the ethnographic touch

I heard the pounding of the basketball echo off the boarded-up school building. Three high school boys played on an abandoned pad of concrete. There was no net for the rim and sometimes the ball seemed to fall through the hoop so cleanly there was the illusion it had missed altogether. I stopped and watched and felt like playing, partly because they could use another man to make opposing teams with two each. I asked if I could play and one of them said, Yeah. So he and I were one of the teams. I was staying in a youth hostel in Fairmount Park, the large expanse of grass and trees that lies on either side of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. I had just hauled part of my library and household goods to Philadelphia from Madison, Wisconsin. Through the University of Pennsylvania I had received a dissertation grant to study the everyday life of Afro Americans, and I was walking through an old section of city along Lombard Street where black people had historically lived. My wife, Karen, was to come out on the next trip. Now, on a warm September Saturday, I was dribbling the ball and was either going to pass off or drive in for layup. My teammate and the other two were playing at playing ball; I was caught up in a double game. My partner might try an impossible move and lose the ball, or try the same daring feint and succeed. Either way the three of them laughed and commented on it and talked to one another and I had trouble picking up what they were saying. Some of the moves they were trying were so exaggerated and risky none of us had any hope they would work. I was alert to differences between the way I had grown up playing in the white American middle class of small midwestern towns and urban, black Philadelphia. The first difference was a big one. At home we had always gone by the rule that if your team makes a basket, the other team gets the ball. In Philadelphia it was just the opposite. I passed off to my teammate, he made the shot, and we kept the ball. This game, new to me, was called, Make it, take it. With those rules the team that started making their shots, could get on a roll and win without ever losing the ball. The rule was disconcerting to me and had the effect of making the game more intense you had to be better on defense to block the other team's shot, and get the ball in order to stop their momentum and start your own. At the same time there was all that incentive to make your own shot because the reward was you had the ball again immediately. They were playing at playing and I could not quite push myself into the style of what they were saying and doing. One of the main things they did was obscure the real score so no one could keep track of the amount by which a team was winning or losing. The margin of difference between scores in that little byplay always kept the two teams close, although my man and I were winning by a good bit I was pretty sure. Playing basketball while growing up, I had learned how to work on my shots. We used to practice a jump shot from the keyhole, then stand and pump in free throws, then two Dan Rose is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania

Assemblage Organization of Stream Fishes: The Effect of Rivers on Adventitious Streams

Assemblage Organization of Stream Fishes: The Effect of Rivers on Adventitious Streams

A Case Study of Geosmin in Philadelphia's Water

Two episodes of unacceptable tastes and odors, which corresponded with levels of geosmin in the water that were much higher than the background level of 20 ng/L or less, occurred in Philadelphia during 1985. The source of one episode was found to be a localized bed of algae in the Schuylkill River. An existing taste‐ and odor‐control program, which utilizes instrumental and sensory analyses, was largely responsible for the effective management of the episodes. Hydraulic strategies were used to reduce the treatment plant's intake of geosmin, and powdered activated carbon in the treatment train further reduced the geosmin level. Dilution of this treated water with other finished waters in the distribution system also diminished the impact of geosmin on the taste and odor of Philadelphia's water.

Representing History: From Public Event to Private Meaning

A great deal has been written about Thomas Eakins's 1877 painting William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Fig. 1). It hardly seems possible to wring further meanings from this picture, or the two later versions of the same subject. But, like any great work of art, Eakins's painting assumes new significance with each turn in critical direction. Within the painting lie clues to different readings that do not negate previous ones but add to our insights into both the artist and his milieu.

Selected papers in hydrologic sciences

A collection of short topical papers providing significant results of hydrologic studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, has been published as “Selected Papers in the Hydrologic Sciences, Volume 1” (Water‐Supply Paper 2262). Edited by Eric L. Meyer, “Selected Papers in the Hydrologic Sciences“ is a new journal‐type publication that will be a part of the existing U.S. Geological Survey Water‐Supply Paper series. The “journal” is aimed at meeting the widespread public and professional interest of the hydrologic community in timely results from hydrologic studies derived from federal research programs, federal‐state cooperative programs, and some work done on behalf of other federal agencies.This first volume, comprising eight papers, addresses a broad array of topics covering sediment chemistry, pesticides, toxic metals, and streamflow characteristics. Included are papers on a technique to measure oxygen in the root zone of saturated and unsaturated soils; measurement of surface runoff and collection of sediment samples from small areas; organic carbon in volcanic ash from Mount St. Helens, Washington; organochlorine pesticide and polychlorinated biphenyl in the Schuylkill River, Pennsylvania; interference of cadmium carbonate precipitation in the determination of cation exchange separation factors; confidence limtis for determining concentrations of tracer particles in sediment samples; determination of aquatic humic substances in natural water; and use of channel cross‐section properties for estimating streamflow characteristics.

Macrobenthos of the Freshwater Tidal Schuylkill River at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Abstract Monthly benthic macroinvertebrate samples were collected in the freshwater tidal Schuylkill River at Philadelphia September 1975–August 1976. A total of twenty-two genera was collected, ten of them dipteran. However, 99.2% (number) and 98.2% (biomass) of total specimens were Tubificidae. Monthly mean numerical and biomass densities were 6204.2/m2 and 1.29 g/m2, respectively. Population densities plummetted in February 1976 following the maximum Schuylkill River discharge measured during the study period. Although Asiatic clam, Corbicula fluminea, was reported present in the nearby Delaware River (Crumb 1977), no specimens appeared in Schuylkill River collections.

Ecological, Biosystematic, and Nomenclatural Notes on Scott's Spleenwort, X Asplenosorus ebenoides

The best known and historically most interesting fern of the Appalachian region is the Scott's Spleenwort, xAsplenosorus ebenoides (Scott) Wherry (Alston, 1940; Weatherby, 1949), a bigeneric hybrid between Asplenium platyneuron and Camptosorus rhizophyllus. The Ebony Spleenwort, A. platyneuron (L.) Oakes, has tall, pinnately compound leaves with shiny, blackish midribs; its veins are simple and bear parallel sori. The Walking Fern, Camptosorus rhizophyllus (L.) Link, has attenuate, simple leaves with green midribs; its veins are reticulate and bear arching sori. Proliferous leaves of the Walking Fern bear a plantlet at their long and thread-like tip. The hybrid fern combines the parental characteristics in a spectacular and often highly asymmetric manner. The hybrid was first found near Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River around 1862 by a horticultural writer, Robert Robinson Scott, and has been known as Scott's Spleenwort ever since (Weatherby, 1949). Scott published a short description in Thomas Meehan's Gardener's Monthly in 1865 and called it Asplenium ebenoides (i.e., like ebeneum, the then-current synonym of platyneuron). However, Meehan in an editorial note suggested that it might be a hybrid, and the following year the British naturalist Rev. M. J. Berkeley proposed its parents correctly (Weatherby, 1949). A number of problems center around Scott's Spleenwort. There has been a question about the correctness of the epithet ebenoides. A fern considerd by some to be identical to it had been named Asplenium hendersonii by Houlston a decade and a half earlier than A. ebenoides. It was assumed that Scott's Spleenwort was a sterile hybrid because in the original locality it occurred singly with the parents. However, around 1874, Julia L. Tutwiler, a teacher, discovered a large population of Scott's Spleenwort in Rock Hollow, near in Hale Co., Alabama, a ravine later known to botanists as Havana Glen. This apparently fertile population grew on a conglomerate rock of

Reliability programing in reservoir management: 2. Risk‐loss functions

The reliability programing approach for reservoir management is based on the concept of risk‐loss functions. This paper presents a methodology for deriving the risk‐loss functions associated with the violations of a freeboard constraint (flood risk) and a water supply storage constraint (drought risk). A relation between the amount of water excess or shortage and its corresponding reliability level is first established. The excesses or shortages are then related to damages (losses). This provides the basis for a final relation of the reliability levels and the damages. A similar approach can be followed in developing the risk‐loss functions associated with other reservoir purposes, such as recreation, navigation, and water quality enhancement. The hydrologie, hydraulic, and economic data necessary for developing the riskloss functions are discussed. The methodology is illustrated using data from the Blue Marsh Reservoir on Tulpehochen Creek, Schuylkill River basin, Pennsylvania.

Occurrence of the Blue Crab Callinectes Sapidus in the Tidal Freshwater Reaches of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers in 1976

Impingement samples collected at four electric generating stations in Philadelphia in 1976 contained blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, previously unreported from the tidal freshwater Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. Specimens were collected in the spring and fall in the Delaware River, but were absent during July, August, and most of September when dissolved oxygen (DO) was lowest. Low DO may have excluded crabs from the Delaware River during the summer; specimens were collected throughout the summer in the Schuylkill River where minimum observed DO was higher than in the Delaware.

First Record of Cordylophora lacustris Allman from Kansas

Cordylophora lacustris Allman, a unique colonial hydroid coelenterate usually abundant in brackish waters, was collected from Melvern Lake, Osage County, Kansas, on 14 September and 3 October 1980. Those collections constitute a first record for Kansas. Since Cordylophora lacustris Allman is abundant in brackish waters and has been collected only occasionally from fresh waters, it has been assumed that this unique colonial hydroid coelenterate is a brackish-water animal in the process of evolving into a fresh-water form (Carpenter, 1928; Wesenberg-Lund, 1939). Reports of infrequent collections of C. lacustris from fresh waters in the Western Hemisphere have been made, but many of those earlier collections are only doubtfully non-brackish (Clarke, 1878; Bibbens, 1892; Nutting, 1901; Hargitt, 1908; Gaggero, 1923 and 1935). However, Davis (1957) cited records of the collection of this organism prior to 1957 from Benson Creek, Kentucky, Gatun Locks in Panama, Fairmount Reservoir in Pennsylvania, the Schuylkill River in Kentucky, the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in Illinois, the Arkansas River at Little Rock and the Red River at Shreveport, Louisiana, along with his collection from the mouth of the Chagrin Harbor, Ohio, as coming from incontestable fresh waters. I agree that all of those bodies of water are classified as fresh, but I do not agree that all have a low salt content. Both the Arkansas and Red Rivers are bedded in soils of high salt content, and they have tributaries that actually course over exposed salt deposits. One tributary of the Arkansas River, the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, crosses the Great Salt Plains in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma, and is impounded to form the Great Salt Plains Lake near Cherokee. Ransom (1968) collected C. lacustris 21 times in a total of 1232 Ekman dredge hauls from the Cimarron arm of Keystone Reservoir near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Arkansas River forms the other main arm of the reservoir. Specific conductance in Keystone Reservoir at the time of the collections ranged from 1700 to 12,000 /mhos/cm and was due mostly to a high sodium chloride concentration. Hutchinson (1967) stated that although the data are This content downloaded from 157.55.39.178 on Fri, 05 Aug 2016 05:21:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 226 TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES incomplete C. lacustris generally has been found in inland waters of relatively high salt content. I see no reason to question his statement in 1980. Pennak (1953) reported C. lacustris occurred in brackish inlets and estuaries from New Jersey to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and that it has been collected in inland rivers in Illinois, Arkansas and Louisiana, probably the same collections as those reported by Davis (1957). Isom and Sinclair (1962) reported collections of C. lacustris from the Tennessee, Cumberland and Duck Rivers from 1955 through 1962. There is a published record of an earlier collection than the one from Keystone Reservoir in Oklahoma and that was from a flume near Tulsa (Blair, 1964). I collected a large number of specimens of C. lacustris from Melvern Lake, Osage County, Kansas, on 14 September 1980, and on 3 October 1980. Since those dates, I have observed the organism many times at the same location. The present find is the first record of this species in Kansas. Specimens were taken from depths ranging from 2 to 10 meters and they were attached to sumerged roots removed by a boat anchor and to Potamogeton stems. The collected specimens are in my personal collection and representatives have been delivered to The Kansas State Biological Survey, University of Kansas. Melvern Lake is without question a clear, fresh body of water. The salt content is very low, with a conductivity ranging between 150 and 400 /gmhos/cm. A Secchi disc reading on 3 October 1980, was more than 110 cm at the collecting site. The 1980 C. lacustris collections from Melvern Lake were unquestionably fresh-water specimens.

A BIO ASSAY LABORATORY BOAT WITH COMPARISONS OF CENTRAL VS. BOAT LABORATORY BIOASSAY EVALUATIONS1

ABSTRACT: A laboratory boat designed to investigate toxic effects on site and its use as a bioassay tool in the study of a refinery effluent discharged into the Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware River, is described. Three‐hundred thirty‐six‐hour continuous‐flow bioassay s exposing the bluegill sunfish, the channel catfish, the tadpole snail, the grass shrimp, and the sheephead minnow to concentrations of refinery effluent in Schuylkill, Delaware River, and Delaware Bay water, with and without the addition of sediment were performed. Results indicated that the toxicity (lethality) of fresh samples tested aboard the boat (refinery effluent, dilution water, sediment) were considerably higher (i.e., refinery effluent at full strength was 2.2X as lethal to the bluegill, 1.4X as lethal to the channel catfish, 1.5X as lethal to the sheep‐head minnow and 100X as lethal to the grass shrimp) than the same test material collected from the refinery outfall and brought to a central laboratory for testing. Chemical analysis and bioassay data is presented showing the effects of aging and irradiation upon the refinery effluent.