Hilo Bay Water Quality
Hilo High School
Chris Lowe & Megan Escalona
Poster by: Kaleolani Poepoe-Deguzman
Hilo Bay
Watershed that covers 463,000 acres
Used for a variety of recreational
activities
Fishing
Surfing
Sailing
Other water recreation
Impaired watershed
Excessive turbidity from
Wailuku river
Excessive nutrients from Wailoa river
Hilo Bay
Water Pollution is the contamination of water bodies
It occurs when a body of water is adversely affected
due to the addition of high amounts of materials to
the water
Wailoa and Wailuku rivers are the main sources of
water input to Hilo Bay
Problem
1. We wanted to determine the health of Hilo Bay by
testing for water quality
2. We wanted to compare what pollutants the Wailoa
and Wailuku rivers contribute to Hilo Bay
What we did
Observed both Wailuku & Wailoa rivers to see
what they were contributing to the watershed
Tested water samples for:
Turbidity
Dissolved oxygen
Nutrients
Phosphate
Nitrate
Temperature
Salinity
pH
Sample Sites
Procedures
Collected 3 water
samples at each site
Tested each water
sample for all
parameters.
Water quality tests kits
YSI probe
Averaged values of the 3
samples to get our data
Temperature(Cesius)
Temperature vs Site
30.0
27.5
25.0
22.5
20.0
Wailoa River
Wailuku River
Sites
Salinity (ppt)
Salinity vs Site
30.0
22.5
15.0
7.5
0
Wailoa River Hilo Bay
Site
Turbidity(JTU)
Turbidity vs Site
100
75
50
25
0
Wailoa River
Sites
Dissolved Oxygen (ppm
DO vs. Site
10.0
7.5
5.0
2.5
0
Wailoa River
Wailuku Rive
Site
pH
pH vs. Site
10.0
7.5
5.0
2.5
0
Wailoa River
Wailuku River
Site
Nutrients vs Site
5.00
3.75
2.50
1.25
0
Wailoa River Wailuku River
Sites
Nitrate
Phosp
Phosphate
Nitrate(ppm)
pH
Dissolve oxygen(ppm)
turbidity(JTU)
Salinity(ppt)
Temperature(Cesius)
Water quality parameters vs. Site
75
0
Wail
Hilo
Wail
Results
Wailuku river
High levels of turbidity
Phosphate and nitrate present in the
water
Wailoa river
No turbidity
Detectable phosphate levels, no
detectable nitrate
Conclusion
Wailoa and Wailuku rivers both impact water quality
in Hilo Bay.
Wailuku river has the greatest influence
High levels of turbidity
Nutrients
Future Research
Get more samples from different locations of test
sites
Sample sites during different weather patterns
Examine the influence the break wall has on limiting
circulation
Acknowldegments
HI-MOES
The students in Ms. Gooch's period 1
environmental science class
Our teachers