Sassagoula River

[disneygirl725]

I just got back from a trip to WDW and we stayed at POR, which we loved. Does anyone know why the Sassagoula River is a dirty brown color? It seemed rather odd? You could only really tell when you were on the boat to DD

 

[dollcollector1]

I just got back from a trip to WDW and we stayed at POR, which we loved. Does anyone know why the Sassagoula River is a dirty brown color? It seemed rather odd? You could only really tell when you were on the boat to DD

I don't know about the Sassagoula River but I do know about the Danube River and that ain't blue ! Don't know why they call if the
* Blue* Danube. Most rivers look brown to me.

 

[disneygirl725]

I know - we have lots of rivers where I live. And they are dirty But this was weird. The water looks normal until the boat makes waves. We thought it might be gasoline from the boats in the water

 

[tacomaranch]

It's brackish water, a mix of salt and fresh water that looks brown.

 

[DizneyNutz]

There are many, many things that affect the water's appearance. The most common are rains sending sediment from construction sites into the watershed, but other factors also contribute ie boat gas and motor oil combination. It all depends on the circumstances of the water in your proximity.

 

[CleveRocks]

The color appearance of a body of water is also STRONGLY affected by the earth at the bottom and sides (if any) of that body of water.

For example, I live by Atlantic City, NJ. Our ocean water quality is EXCELLENT, it's tested daily during the summer. The water is as clean as clean can be. But most of the time when you look at the ocean it appears to be a dark green or dark grey with a dark-bluish tinge. But if you put the water in a bucket or a glass, it's crystal clear.

I'll never forget my first trip to the Caribbean (the REAL Caribbean, not CBR) and how bright BLUE the water was. My wife and I just assumed the water was cleaner there. Then people there explained to us that it's a matter of the color and reflective/refractive properties of the sand. The sand in that part of the world bends the light in a certain way after it bounces of the bottom, rather than absorbing the light like the sand in most of the eastern USA. I tried this out, and when you put it in a clear glass, the water in the beautiful blue Caribbean Sea is the same colorless crystal clear as our water here at the South Jersey shore.

On the Sassagoula, don't forget that it's probably pretty shallow (and very definitely man-made), so the boat's propellors churn up the water and disturb the sediment on the bottom.

I really disagree that oil and/or fuel from the boats on the Sassagoula contributes to a brownish color of the water. Oil and fuel would float on top, not be mixed in, and would appear as a translucent, rainbow-colored sheen on the water's surface.

 

[LorieR]

We were told by one of the boat "captains" (??) on a trip to DTD that it was the tannin in the roots of the trees that turned the water that tea color.