By Shantelle Crouch, Buchanan Lion
It’s so much fun being a Lion. Some of the stuff we get ourselves into is just amazing. Our Lions Club is right off of the James River so we have paired up with James River Watch and are part-time “scientists,” if you will. Every year, from May-September, twice a week, a Lion or two from the Buchanan Lions Club will go to the river and take samples of the river water and test it for bacteria… More specifically, E.coli.
We do this to make sure the river is okay to swim in. If the bacteria numbers are high then it’s unsafe to swim in because it can make you very sick. Here, Fellow Lion Jessie Burton and I went down to the river and collected their samples. They went back to the lab and did a work-up. They checked for things such as the temperature of the water, the temperature of the air, the turbidity in the water, and E.coli.
After they recorded what they could they placed their sample in a petri dish and then put the petri dish in an incubator. After 24 hours of cooking time, they reveal how much bacteria is in the James River.