Foam in Gabriola streams
What do we all know about foam in Gabriola streams?
Well, ok. I know nothing, other than seeing masses of foam in streams all over the island. I rely now on your expertise. What do you know, wise and wonderful readers?
Is this evidence of polution? Dish-soap getting into Gabriola’s streams and wetlands? Or is there some natural explanation, and would this be happening even if humans weren’t on the island? Tell me, environmentally-geeky people. (Andrea, can you help? Anybody else?)
Filed in Gabriola Island,environment,photos 5 Comments so far
5 Responses to “Foam in Gabriola streams”
cheryl on 30 Jan 2010 at 12:09 am #
If you go to http://www.in.gov/idem/4561.htm then click on IDEM foam fact sheet it gives you a very good exclamation of what causes the foam. Has to do with molecules and such.
Andrea on 30 Jan 2010 at 5:43 am #
Environmental geek to the rescue (I can think of lots worse things to be called. :)
Foam on water can be either natural or pollution-related.
As a natural process, mixing of air with the water can cause foaming. This is more likely to occur if there is some other substance present that breaks the surface tension of the water – natural substances that do this include oils from decomposing plants, or humic substances (brown water) from bogs and swamps. That being said, detergents and other pollutants also break surface tension and lead to foaming. (Do you know what I mean by surface tension? It’s what holds up water striders and other bugs that skate around on the surface of the water.)
I think you might have to get up close and personal with the foam to find out. These two web sites tell you what natural foam vs detergent foam should smell like (earthy vs. perfumed, basically), look like (brown vs white, mostly) and feel like (light vs slimy – I leave it up to you to decide if you want to stick your hand into the stuff!).
http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ead-tas-foam.pdf
http://www.state.me.us/dep/blwq/doclake/foam.htm
Good luck diagnosing your foam and I’ll be interested to know what you decide it was.
Gabriolan on 30 Jan 2010 at 12:48 pm #
Thanks, Cheryl and Andrea!
Andrea, I’ll read more about how to tell the difference between natural foam and detergent foam; I am willing to stick my hand into the stuff. Most of the foam that I see on Gabriola is bright white, and there sure is a lot of it.
Michael Mehta on 30 Jan 2010 at 4:11 pm #
I agree with Andrea’s assessment. Foam can be due to natural processes. Algae and other biological agents are leached from soil thus reducing the surface tension of the water. This is why foam forms.
Gabriolan on 30 Jan 2010 at 11:10 pm #
Another thing everybody but me already knew about, it seems. I will now become a foam-sniffer to make up for my previous ignorance.