WSS and WMA Drippy

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is a measure of how much oxygen is dissolved in the water - the amount of oxygen available to living aquatic organisms. The amount of dissolved oxygen in a stream or lake can tell us a lot about its water quality.

Water and electricity don't mix, right? Well actually,  pure water is an excellent insulator and does not conduct electricity. The thing is, you won't find any pure water in nature, so don't mix electricity and water. Our Water Science School page will give you all the details.

Lucky for us all, our drinking water is almost always clear (very low turbidity). Other water, such as the creek behind your house after a rainstorm, is likely to be highly turbid—brown with floating sediment. Turbidity is the clarity of water and it is an important factor in water quality.

In your everyday life you are probably not involved much with saline water. You are concerned with freshwater to serve your life's every need. But, most of Earth's water is saline, or salty water. Just look at the oceans and remember that oceans comprise about 97% of all water on, in, and above the Earth.

In scientific terms, water hardness is generally the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water. But in layman's terms, you may notice water hardness when your hands still feel slimy after washing with soap and water, or when your drinking glasses at home become less than crystal clear. Learn a lot more about water hardness on the Water Science School site.

Water in nature is never really totally clear, especially in surface water, such as rivers and lakes. Water has color and some extent of dissolved and suspended material, usually dirt particles (suspended sediment). Suspended sediment is an important factor in determining the quality of water.

A huge amount of water exists in the ground below your feet, and people all over the world make great use of it. But it is only found in usable quantities in certain places underground — aquifers. Read on to understand the concepts of aquifers and how water exists in the ground.

Depending on where you live, maybe you've heard of acid rain. Now, acid rain is not pure acid falling from the sky, but rather it is rainfall or atmospheric moisture that has been mixed with elements and gases that have caused the moisture to become more acidic than normal. Pure water has a pH of 7, and, generally, rainfall is somewhat on the acidic side (a bit less than 6). But, acid rain can...

What is streamflow? How do streams get their water? To learn about streamflow and its role in the water cycle, continue reading.

Water for thermoelectric power is used in the process of generating electricity with steam-driven turbine generators. Since 2000, thermoelectric-power withdrawals have been compiled by cooling-system type. Once-through cooling refers to cooling systems in which water is circulated through heat exchangers, and then returned to the source. Recirculating cooling refers to cooling systems in which...

Even though the ground is an excellent mechanism for filtering out particulate matter, such as leaves, soil, and bugs, dissolved chemicals and gases can still occur in large enough concentrations in groundwater to cause problems.

When a drought hits and little or no rain has fallen in a long time, you might expect small streams and even larger rivers to just dry up, right? In many cases, they don't. Streamflow might lessen to a trickle or so, but water continues to flow. How is that possible? Read on to find out how "base flow", which is water seeping into the stream from groundwater, helps keep water in streams during...