August 27th was the last full river sampling day of Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance’s (SeVWA’s) 2014 river monitoring program. There will be one more monitoring day for a small number of sites on September 10th. In 2014 SeVWA’s monitoring program included 26 river and stream sites. Those sites were along the West River, North Branch Brook, Rock River, Williams River, Middle Branch Williams River, Saxtons River and Whetstone Brook.
Most children in the southeastern Vermont region headed back to school this week and, with the start of school and Labor Day Weekend upon us, many consider summer over. However, summer is still officially here and the weather will remain quite “summery” through the coming week. Recreational use of our region’s rivers will continue into the fall.
Several days preceding the final sampling on August 27th were remarkably dry and fair. There were no major rain events in SeVWA’s monitoring region during the 48 hours prior to sampling. The Escherichia coli (E. coli) results met the state of Vermont’s and EPA’s standard for “suitability for swimming”. See the attached E. coli results charts for SeVWA’s 2014 season’s E. coli testing results. All of the E. coli results from August 27 samples fell in the range of “suitable for swimming”. However, through the 2014 season we saw a number of times when sampling followed rain events that contributed to E. coli results that exceeded the state of Vermont’s and EPA’s standard for “suitability for swimming”. A general recommendation is that it is prudent to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rain event to swim in the effected waters. Please keep that in mind when deciding how the rivers will fit into your holiday weekend plans.
Feel free to post the attached E. coli results charts in your communities where folks will see them. If you have a local news publication also submit the relevant chart and this commentary to them for posting/publishing and provide to your town’s conservation commission or planning department.
E. coli results charts and accompanying commentaries appear at www.ibrattleboro.com (Living/Nature section) every 2 weeks through the monitoring season. For more information about SeVWA’s monitoring program sites and results and other Connecticut River watershed water quality and recreational information, please visit www.ctriver.us.
The important role that our volunteers have in SeVWA’s river monitoring program cannot be emphasized enough. Without their diligent involvement, SeVWA’s monitoring program would not be able to do the work that is accomplished every season. In 2014, there are 25 regular SeVWA river monitoring volunteers with an additional 8 volunteers occasionally filling in for “regulars”.
SeVWA’s water quality monitoring program is supported by SeVWA volunteers, members and donors, including Rock River Preservation. The State of VT Department of Environmental Conservation’s LaRosa Environmental Testing Laboratory and Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC) provide support for laboratory analysis of river samples.
SeVWA’s water quality monitoring program exists through the generosity of supporters who value the monitoring and stewardship of our region’s waterways. If you are one of those people, your gift to continue the program would be appreciated. For more information contact Gloria Cristelli, SeVWA president at sevwa.mail@gmail.com. Donations can be mailed to: SeVWA, P.O. Box 402, Brattleboro, VT 05302. If you’d like to contribute by becoming a SeVWA volunteer, please contact Laurie Callahan at sevwa.volunteer@gmail.com. Though we currently have an adequate number of volunteer river samplers, we may need additional river monitors in 2015 and there are other aspects of the program that we can always use help with.
Thanks again for your interest and all you do to support SeVWA’s monitoring program.
This information is provided by Laurie Callahan and Ryan O’Donnell for SeVWA’s Water Quality Monitoring Program (sevwa.volunteer@gmail.com).
