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HEALTH

12 Days of Christmas: Help ORCA buy device to measure Indian River Lagoon pollution

Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers

The Ocean Research & Conservation Association wants to shed a little light on the nutrient pollution problem in the Indian River Lagoon.

To do so, the Fort Pierce-based nonprofit needs a portable spectrophotometer to measure nitrogen, phosphorus and ammonia — nutrients that can feed algae blooms — at sites throughout the lagoon.

A spectrophotometer measures the intensity of light as it passes through a water sample. Software in the device knows how much light should pass through a normal sample containing, for example, phosphorus, and can calculate how much higher or lower the amount of phosphorus is in the sample being tested.

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One of the maps produced by the Ocean Research & Conservation Association shows pollution levels in a section of the Indian River Lagoon in Vero Beach.

ORCA has a spectrophotometer in its lab in Fort Pierce, but only one portable one for staffers and citizen scientists.

"We use the one we have in the field so much that people are lined up to get their hands on it," Falls said. "But the spectrophotometer in the lab is, well, in the lab."

The organization also has about a dozen Kilroys, remote-controlled water quality sensors spread throughout the lagoon and its tributaries, that have components that measure concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus.

"The Kilroys, although they provide real-time data 24 hours a day, are in set locations," Falls said. "Having portable spectrophotometers allows us to go anywhere we need to to to measure nutrients and do it immediately."

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Research assistant Christie Freseman (left) and instrumentation engineer Morgan Marmitt, both with the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, install additional equipment that will measure nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the Indian River Lagoon on Thursday, July 23, 2020, at a Kilroy site at the Main Relief Canal at Royal Palm Point in Vero Beach. Thanks to back-to-back grants from the Florida Legislature, Kilroy sites are being put back into the water in Indian River County where they have been absent for the last few years. Along with measuring nitrates and phosphates, the Kilroys measure temperature, depth, clarity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and acidity.

ORCA also needs 10 special vials known as cuvettes to use with the portable spectrophotometer.

"The cuvettes are made with really clear, really expensive glass that makes sure nothing interferes with getting an accurate reading," Falls said.

How to help

  • Who: Ocean Research & Conservation Association
  • Wish: Portable spectrophotometer, 10 cuvettes
  • Cost: $4,500
  • How to donate: Contact Angela Schinske, 772-467-1600 or aschinske@teamorca.org

About this series

​Treasure Coast groups that research, protect and restore the Indian River Lagoon need more than holiday cheer to continue their mission of saving area waterways. Find out what they need — and how you can help them — to continue their work as TCPalm.com highlights a different organization each day from Dec. 25 to Jan. 5, the traditional 12 Days of Christmas. Read the previous stories:

Because Tyler Treadway has retired, for more information about this story, contact TCPalm's new environment reporter, Max Chesnes, at max.chesnes@tcpalm.com, or the environment editor, Cheryl Smith, at cheryl.smith@tcpalm.com.