After heavy rains, the water in the Ondatra Creek has acquired this strange color:
The aquamarine color is even brighter than the camera allows for. Does anybody know what this means? I’ve also seen this happen to ponds in the area that are located quite far from our creek. Is this something to worry about? In my country, when the water gets this color, that’s a very bad sign, so I’m worried.
Clarissa's Blog 
Maybe some sort of algae? I’ve never even seen such a colour in water. What does it mean when water gets that colour in your country?
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That a factory nearby has dumped a bunch of poisonous shit into the water. It makes one a pariah even to say the word “ecology” in our countries, so people just live with unnaturally colored water and grass.
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It’s from ground sediment washed into the water by the rainfall. I wouldn’t worry about the transient color if the muskrats in the creek don’t. (You do have muskrats there, right? — That’s was “Ondatra” means.)
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Bad proofreading, sorry — it should say “what ‘Ondatra’ means.”
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The Ondatra seems very perky, swimming in this water. I can’t call it a rat now that I’ve actually named it.
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I have seen water that color and there are multiple causes. One is pollution; heavy rains can wash pollutants into creek water. That’s usually a temporary problem. Under more normal conditions, the chemicals will stop entering the creek and what’s there will flow downstream. If it’s a bacterial issue, that also will be temporary for the same reason. You might ask the county environmental protection unit to run a water test. Either way, I wouldn’t go swimming in it until it returns to a normal color.
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I never considered swimming in it because I’d be terrified of Nelly and the fishes. But I am worried about the pollution.
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Who/ what is “Nelly”?
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Nelly is my Ondatra!!! 🙂 Although I’m not sure it knows it’s mine.
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// Who/ what is “Nelly”?
The Ondatra. But may be it’s a “he”?
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Can you honestly picture me catching the poor thing and studying its reproductive organs to make sure? 🙂
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No, have some respect for it’s privacy…besides, the little buggers bite ;-D
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The creek has changed its color back to normal.
Weirdness.
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It could be possible to swim in it?? I totally would!!!
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Aren’t you scared of the Ondatra??
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Nope. Any swimming opportunity is worth seizing.
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I would be scared of chemicals. Getting infections in one’s eyes, ears and reproductive organs is extremely uncomfortable.
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Glacial lakes frequently have that colour; in that case, it;s due to glacial silt. I have no idea what the soil is like where you live, but given that this happened immediately after a rain storm, it seems possible that this is just caused by ground sediment getting washed into the river, as Dreidel suggested above.
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Probably this:
Rayleigh scattering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering
Once the particles in the water that were causing this were flushed downstream, the green colour went away …
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