By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

SABATTUS – Ashley Malinowski was home alone with her big sister when she decided to experiment with the medicine capsule.

She broke it in half, poured the powder into a bowl, then started pulling stuff from the refrigerator and cabinets.

A splash of milk. A dash of cinnamon. A pinch of parsley. A squirt of ketchup. A touch of mustard. A bit of soda.

Malinowski mixed it all together as her sister warned her that she was going to be in big trouble when their parents got home. Malinowski didn’t care. She was mesmerized by the concoction – its smell, its texture.

About eight years later, the Oak Hill High School senior is being recognized for discovering high phosphorus levels in sections of Sabattus Pond that had never before been tested.

“Ever since I was little I had a curiosity about mixing things,” the shy, college-bound student said.

Malinowski became interested in the quality of Sabattus Pond during her junior year when her chemistry teacher, Lois Ongley, taught her class how to take and test water samples.

The students learned that excessive amounts of algae had been growing in the pond, making the water murky and green.

Ongley also taught them that algae needs phosphorus to grow. Although phosphorus comes from natural causes, such as plant decay, it can also come from lawn fertilizer and other pollutants.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Sabattus Pond Watershed Partnership and other organizations had already been monitoring the phosphorus levels in the pond.

But Malinowski, now 18, decided to take her studies a step further.

At the end of her junior year, she borrowed one of Ongley’s test kits and she took various samples throughout the summer. Then she continued her research in the fall.

On Nov. 11, a day when Malinowski didn’t have soccer practice, wasn’t waiting tables at Moe’s Diner or singing in the school choir, she and Ongley took seven samples from various sections of the pond.

The sections included untested spots by a golf course, an industrial site and an agricultural site.

Malinowski’s preliminary tests showed that previous findings by the DEP may not have told the whole story.

The state had concluded that the pond’s phosphorus problem was likely the result of natural causes, such as plant decay, and water runoff from private lakefront properties.

Malinowski’s findings, which were later confirmed by the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory, showed abnormally high levels of phosphorus in areas where those sources couldn’t possibly be the sole contributors.

“We were measuring stuff that nobody else had measured at these locations,” Ongley said. “That, to me, is really cool.”

Malinowski presented her findings at the Maine Water Conference last month, where she was given an award for having the best high school poster. That award will be officially handed to her Friday during an assembly in front of the entire high school.

For Malinowski, however, the true rewards have already come.

One was having DEP officials approach her at the conference, thank her for her work and assure her that they would examine the pond more closely.

The other was hearing her chemistry teacher refer to her as a scientist.

“It’s awesome,” the teen said. “It kind of stirs up a feeling that I’ll be able to keep up with college and maybe be good in a field that I enjoy.”