Point Source & Coliform Sampling Studies

Strawberry Creek has been very important to the Berkeley campus and the Berkeley
community as a whole. Strawberry Creek has two major forks, north and south, which run
through the campus and the city. Fish populations in the creek began disappearing after the turn
of the 20th century due to poor water conditions and poor creek management. Since 1987 many
efforts have been made to introduce fish into the creek. Currently, the south fork has an
abundance of fish while the north fork has been unable to maintain a fish population. This
project aims to look at whether water quality is the answer to why fish are present in one fork
and not the other. Form February thru mid-April, 2002 weekly samples of pH, conductivity,
turbidity, chlorine, copper, phenols and detergents were taken at five sites in each of the two
forks. Weekly samples were also taken at two sites past the junction of the two forks simply
known as the main branch. A Tukey-Kramer honestly significant difference test was used to
detect for the difference between the sites. Data collected for all parameters was shown to not be
significantly different and therefore the conclusion that water quality with respect to the
collected parameters is not the reason for fish presence in the south fork and the lack of fish in
the north fork in Strawberry Creek.