From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):
The Rio Relay, put on by the Rio Grande International Study Center in Laredo, Texas, included sampling of the river by students at 52 schools from Creede to Brownsville, Texas. The sampling provided what Jay Johnson CastroCQ, the study center’s director, called a snapshot of the river and will give students a chance to study water quality as part of the curriculum at their schools.
Alamosa High’s advanced placement biology class conducted 11 different tests on their samples, ranging from pH to turbidity and dissolved oxygen…
Based on the testing, the class gave the Rio Grande through Alamosa a grade of C. Montague said one of the main factors keeping down the river’s grade was its low oxygen level, which limits aquatic life. The class found the river was 56 percent oxygenated, while an excellent standard would be above 90 percent. Testing also revealed low levels of phosphates and nitrates, which is surprising Montague said, given that the the valley is an agricultural area and those two are common elements in fertilizer…
Johnson Castro started the relay Tuesday taking samples with a home-school student near Stony Pass, home of the Rio Grande’s headwaters. “It was pretty profound to be there,” he said. The relay, which also made stops in Creede, Del Norte and Antonito, ends next weekend near the Gulf of Mexico.