Section 4

Let me just say that the experiments she made us do were really disgusting. First we had to walk two miles along the Lehigh River and take pH measurements with a pH meter. Ms. Kuhn said we had to generate a pH map of the river so we could see where the problems started. Then we had to go around and dig up dirt, sift it, and count the earthworms that live near the two river banks. First along the Lehigh River, where it isn’t contaminated, and then along the banks of Sandy Run, where the water is acidic old mines and some industries discharging into it. (Click here to see the pH map) (Click here to see pH graph) I was totally grossed out but I couldn’t show it because all the girls were there and they kept fussing. Jenny Simmons screamed non-stop when it was her turn to dig. She thought we were just going to look at trees and stuff, not handle a bunch of creepy crawlies. Daryl Jenkins kept cutting the worms in half with the shovel when it was his turn to dig. Some people just can’t resist the urge to act up I guess or maybe he just likes being sent to the principal’s office. Lenny got really upset because he said cutting the worms into pieces would throw the accuracy of our count off and Ms. Kuhn was very particular about how we conducted this experiment.

We had to dig for our worms and get water and soil samples at two different spots. One was in Sandy Run which has three mines dumping into it. (Click here to see the soil pH results) The other was at the Lehigh River, above where Sandy Run joins it. The Lehigh River is contaminated from the acid run off too but not as badly as the Sandy Run creek. Mrs. Kuhn said it wasn’t a perfect experiment. Ideally we should have sampled a river that had no acid contamination but she hadn’t been able to find one. That should tell you what a big problem this is! You could really see the differences in the pH between the two streams when we tested our water samples back in class.

When we finished counting everything up we found that the ground near to Sandy Run had fewer earthworms in it than the ground around the Lehigh River. (To see our worm count click here.) Ms. Kuhn kept asking us about why there were fewer worms in the ground around the Sandy Run creek. She said the worms couldn't survive in dirt that has too much acid or a very low pH. Jenny Fielding said that was okay because she thought that the worms were really gross anyway so it was fine with her if there were fewer of them. Ms. Kuhn got very upset about that and told us earthworms are very important. Earthworms eat dead leaves and rotting plants and grind all this stuff up in their gizzards and what comes out the other end becomes food for plants. (I’m not trying to gross you out Aunt Kayla; I’m just repeating what Ms. Kuhn said.) The worms tunnel though the soil looking for food and break up the earth which allows air and water to circulate though the ground and get to the plants. You can actually tell how healthy soil is by the number of earthworms it contains. Mrs. Kuhn said that earthworms are very important to the soil and to the plants and that’s makes them very important to all of us. I’ll admit she was pretty convincing. Jenny Fielding looked almost guilty for asking her question when Ms. Kuhn finished her speech but she still said she thought the earthworms were gross when the teacher turned her back.

To view pH sample tests being performed click on the links below. You will need Realplayer to view this.

pH sample 1
pH sample 2