Cook Plant preoperational studies, 1969 / John C. Ayers ... [et al.].

blue-green algae, which "like" warm water, are present in small numbers even in
the cold water of spring. Considerably greater populations of phytoplankton
were found in the southern and northern lines of stations than were present in
the line extending off shore at the Cook plant site; the numbers of phytoplankton
cells per liter of water were:
Five miles south Center of Cook site Five miles north
Station PPP-3 (15 ft) Station PPP-12 (15 ft) Station PPP-21 (15 ft)
859,000 c/1 571,000 c/1 545,000 c/l
Station PPP-1 (35 ft) Station PPP-10 (35 ft) Station PPP-19 (35 ft)
599,000 c/1 185,000 c/1 430,000 c/1
In the present state of knowledge, these results have to be interpreted as
indicating that waters richer in nutrients lie to the south and to the north of
the Cook site. The richer water to the north probably contains decomposed
pollutants from the St. Joseph River; the source of nutrients to the south is at
present unknown.
The zooplankton collections also indicate populations 2 to 4 times greater
in 15 feet of depth than in 35 feet, but this probably means only that the zooplankters move into areas where their phytoplankton food is most abundant.
With the results of these two surveys to work from, attention was turned to
developing the best-possible system of sampling stations for the pre- and postoperational aquatic studies around the Cook plant.
Representative and Optimal Sampling at the Cook Site
Six substantial considerations have influenced the development of the
sampling system at the stations around the Cook plant site.
First, the system must representatively sample the aquatic and biotic
parameters of the environment. "Representatively" here contains the concept of
increasing density of samples as one approaches the interest area from any
direction.

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