The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its second monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, July 1st. As you may recall, a large thunderstorm came through our area Wednesday morning which coincided, rather unfortunately, right with our sampling time. Some volunteers were out before the storm moved through, but about half our sites were not tested due to the inclement weather. Our volunteers are a valuable asset and we never want to risk their safety to get a few water samples!
Bacteria levels tend to spike following a heavy rain event when more water falls on the ground than can be infiltrated, or soaked into, the ground and it runs off directly into rivers and streams taking everything loose on the ground with it. In the case of impermeable surfaces such as concrete, pavement, and compacted sand or gravel, no water can ever infiltrate and always becomes runoff when it rains. The results for the samples we were able to collect reflect this as about half tested above the State of VT an EPA recommended levels of “suitability to swim.” As more heavy rain continued after these samples were collected, it is possible that bacteria levels continued to rise as more runoff made its way into the rivers. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming
in lakes and streams.
As we’re heading into the 4th of July weekend, the weather looks great and many of you will be enjoying your time in these and other waters. Please be safe and do your part to keep them clean so that everyone can continue to enjoy them for years to come.
SeVWA’s water quality monitoring program is supported by SeVWA volunteers, members and donors, including Robert Fritz, Inc, Rock River Preservation, Elaine Lambert Living Trust, Law Offices of Crispe & Crispe, State of VT Department of Environmental Conservation’s LaRosa Environmental Testing Laboratory, & Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC).
E. coli results charts and accompanying commentaries will appear at www.ibrattleboro.com (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.
Thanks again for all you do to support SeVWA’s monitoring program and for your interest.
This information is provided by Ryan O’Donnell, SeVWA WQMP Coordinator and Chris Yurek, SeVWA 2015 intern (sevwa.volunteer@gmail.com).
SeVWA website – https://sites.google.com/site/vtsevwa/
