In the 1960s how estuaries flushed themselves was being studied, and one of the variables was how

the BOD of
the water in the estuary was progressively reduced by the flushing. The Delaware Estuary study was a large project
to show how the effects of pollutants (and their control) would affect water quality. As a part of this study, a group
of young interns were to run up and down the estuary taking samples at specified locations, bring these samples
back to the laboratory, and run the BODs.

As the first large batch bottles came in, the intern assigned to the laboratory measured the initial dissolved oxygen
in all of the bottles and placed them into an incubator. Five days later, he took the bottles out and measured the
final DO. Much to his surprise, the final DO numbers were higher than the initial DO values. Suspecting chemical
error, he remixed all the chemicals very carefully, following exactly the procedures in Standard Methods. But the
results did not change. The final DOs are still higher, and many bottles were actually supersaturated with oxygen.

Enumerate possible reasons for this occurrence and suggest remediation steps to ensure accurate results from the
tests.

- One possible major error would be regarding the incubator, since its main purpose is to provide an energy
source through its’ light for the algae in the bottles to produce oxygen. Therefore, it was possible that the
light bulb in the incubator was faulty. Thus, providing errors in the result.

- Another possible error at the same time possibly an ineffective method would be the procedure of standard
methods done. Other procedures deemed applicable to the experiment such as the Winkler method, which
is known to determine the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water samples, should also be considered.