Students aid in collecting water sample tests

Thanks to efforts of a group of Shelter Island students, Town officials have an early indication that anecdotal evidence about salt water intrusion in some homeowners’ wells are indeed showing high levels of chlorides.

But thanks to well water samples collected and tested by Shelter Island Environmental Science students and members of the school’s Science Club, it’s now known that some tests revealed chloride levels above 200 parts per million (ppm). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses 250 ppm as a secondary-standard for taste and possible plumbing issues, science teacher Dan Williams said.

It all started with Water Advisory Committee (WAC) members who have exploring salt water intrusion based on anecdotal reports from residents. Dave Ruby, a WAC member, took hold of the project, but with expectations of approximately 100 samples, he said he couldn’t collect samples on his own. Accordingly, he turned to Mr. Williams. 

Mr. Williams’ students have a reputation for higher level science achievements than is typical at high schools and even at some colleges. That’s because of Mr. Williams’ connections at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and his ability to demonstrate to the Board of Education the accomplishments that could be achieved in the classroom with more sophisticated equipment.

In this case, Mr. Ruby needed a small group of “foot soldiers” who could pick up sample collection containers from Town Hall or the Library and bring the samples to the high school lab, to handle data logging, analysis and reporting. Teachers spot checked some results to assure accuracy, Mr. Williams told WAC members earlier this month.

Just the process of picking up the samples and getting them to the school “would have been overwhelming for one person — namely me” — to handle , Mr. Ruby said.

Each of the volunteer homeowners were given a number that coordinated with their sample so they can retrieve their results posted to the WAC page on the Town website. Most results by number are available already for participating property owners. Of 94 samples, results for 74 are in, with 20 more due probably this week, Mr. Ruby said.

Using numbers assigned to their samples, property owners will be able to view their full results. Town officials, however, will receive only data by areas, not specific addresses.

Given the experience of working with the students, WAC  is anticipating more sampling this summer and asked Mr. Williams if he could identify some students who might be available for some additional sample collection and testing.