Day 11- Nine Mile Run

Today we went to Nine Mile Run and met with Lisa Brown. She told us all about the watershed, which she has worked on restoring. We learned how what happens on the land in this watershed affects water. The Nine Mile Run watershed is part of the larger Gulf of Mexico watershed. We walked around Frick Park and saw different areas. We saw wetlands, which the US government protects. Wetlands are important because they purify water. We also saw a sewage drainage spot. It smelled disgusting! The sewage overflows into the river when rain is received and the system is overpowered. Lisa Brown also told us about the results of restoration. Fish have come back and there are many species of birds. Then we picked up trash. We got quite a bit of trash. After picking up trash, we headed to Primanti Bros. for lunch. The sandwiches were huge and had coleslaw and french fries on. Some people really liked them, while others disliked them. After that, we headed back to campus. We went to Barnes and Nobles, a bookstore that also contains the campus store. People purchased various books and Duquesne University attire. Then we went over to the science building to look at the results of our Petri plates we did on Friday. We swabbed four different Petri plates each with water samples we collected last week. The different Petri dishes had different mediums that selectively allowed different types of bacteria to grow. We saw many types of bacteria. We had E. Coli, which was a glowing green color. Other bacteria were purple, clear, and various other colors. It was neat to see the results of what bacteria were present in our water samples. Today was a fun day.