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You are viewing data about the Neuse River at three locations in North Carolina. First, click on the hyperlink below to open the data sets.

 * Click on “Neuse River Information”. It may take a minute to fully load.
 * Instructions
 * Open Google Spreadsheets.
 * Create a spreadsheet page for each location: New Bern, Flanner Beach, and Cherry Point.
 * Your data sets have two values for every category because the USGS took readings at both the top and bottom of the river.
 * Begin each set at 1996.
 * For each category and each year, average the two values (sampling depth, water temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen). Thus you will have five categories as such:
 * = ==Year== ||= ==Sampling Depth== ||= ==pH== ||= ==Dissolved Oxygen== ||= ==Temperature ( Fº) == ||
 * For temperature, use degrees Fahrenheit instead of Celius. To convert, use the formula is Fº = (9/5)•Cº + 32
 * Answer the following questions below using your spreadsheet files.

Helpful insights from the EPA
Website: @http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/stream/vms50.html
 * Temperature should be less than 25º C, or 77º F
 * pH should be between 6.5 and 8.0
 * Conductivity should be between 150 and 500 ms/cm
 * Dissolved oxygen must be above 5 mg/l. Good water has at least 8 mg/l.

=**__Questions__**=

1) Create scatterplots of temperature vs. year, pH vs. year, conductivity vs. year, and dissolved oxygen vs. year for each site.
Answer:

2) Of the four items, which appear to be in good condition for the health of the river. Explain your reasoning.
Answer:

3) Of the four items, which appear to be in poor condition for the health of the river. Explain your reasoning.
Answer:

4) Based upon your scatterplots, does there appear to be an improvement in the overall quality of the river? Explain why or why not.
Answer:

5) Overall, would you consider this river system to be in good condition? Explain why or why not.
Answer: