|
|
| Home |  |
| Water Quality Monitoring | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This year marks the sixteenth season that dedicated volunteers have monitored water quality throughout the Nashua River watershed. Thanks to all our participants! From April through October of 2008, field volunteers are collecting data once a month at 36 streamside sites throughout the watershed. The NRWA is partnering with two laboratories- the Devens Wastewater Treatment Facility operated by Earth Tech and the Pepperell Wastewater Treatment Plant. Lab volunteers, lab staff, and the NRWA staff analyze the samples for E. coli bacteria, dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, and turbidity. Temperature and habitat characteristics are recorded by volunteers in the field. In both the field and the lab, quality control procedures are followed according to the NRWA water quality monitoring Quality Assurance Project Plan. Monitoring for the 2007 season was supported in part by a grant from Greater Lowell Community Foundation. To view 2007 Water Quality Data. To view 2007 color-coded result for E. coli testing. Color-coded results other than E.coli are available upon request. In 2007, with support of a grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), baseline nutrient data has been collected at six sites located in Lancaster, MA, and a pilot project has been undertaken using a meter to obtain data from these sites. View 2007 Lancaster Nutrient Data. In 2007, NRWA will also be partnering with the Massachusetts Watershed Coalition, the Leominster Land Trust, the Monoosnoc Brook Greenway Project, and the Leominster DPW to restore the health of Monoosnoc Brook. NRWA will be training volunteer water monitors and testing samples at five sites from May to September. Please contact NRWA for more information on these projects. Data collected by NRWA volunteers reflects a snapshot of conditions on one particular day at each individual sampling site. While that data is useful in studying the general health of the rivers and watching for quality issues, daily conditions of the rivers are variable and may be affected by a number of factors; therefore, the data may not represent the actual conditions of the rivers in other locations or on other occasions. NRWA is also involved in bacterial source tracking at targeted locations. If you have questions about water quality, you are encouraged to contact water quality personnel at the NRWA. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the NRWA and its partners a Targeted Watershed Initiative grant for “Protecting Today’s Water for Tomorrow: Combating Threats to Source Water in the Squannacook-Nissitissit Sub-basin of the Nashua River Watershed in Massachusetts & New Hampshire.” Beaver Brook Association, New England Forestry Foundation, and Trust for Public Land are partnering with the NRWA. The water quality monitoring portion of the project will provide baseline data on nutrient loading, including stormwater, to and from the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers. Fifteen locations in the S-N sub-basin are being sampled for nutrients and total suspended solids during routine monitoring. In addition, surface water at locations with three different land use types are targeted for storm event sampling: a largely forested site; a more “urbanized” site; and, a densely populated residential site. Sampling began in the spring of 2006 after the EPA approved a Quality Assurance Project Plan. Thanks to grants from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, the Nashua River Watershed Association completed organization of the past ten years of water quality monitoring data (1996-2005) into an accessible and usable format necessary for analyzing trends. An additional enhancement of data was added in 2006 to color-code data by parameter to make the data more public-friendly. To view 1996-2005 data, color-coded data by parameter, site descriptions, and a map of all the sampling locations. In addition to the monthly monitoring, volunteers have helped monitor the health of smaller brooks and streams through macroinvertebrate sampling. They have also helped pull out the invasive water chestnut plant on the Pepperell Pond portion of the Nashua River mainstem (a project sponsored by Nashoba Paddler). If you are interested in volunteering or if you have questions about water quality issues, please contact Kathryn Nelson, NRWA's Water Monitoring Coordinator (e-mail Kathryn) or Martha Morgan, NRWA's Water Programs Director ( e-mail Martha).
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
