Our first glimpse into the murky waters...

Our first water samples were ready to be counted today.  There were lots of bacterial colonies, but not too much of the bad stuff (fecal bacteria).  I can't wait for tomorrow when the rest of the samples will be ready to count!

When we were sampling at this site (Location #3B), we were approached by some gentlemen working for VDOT.  They said they have been working to pull tons of debris out of the stream, which was clearly hindering the flow.  On one side of the bridge, the water wasn't deep enough for us to dip the bucket into, but on the other side the water was fairly deep, sluggish, and was covered in an oily sheen.  The dark blue/purple dots (3 of them) are the fecal coliforms.