Bug Night and Rock Basket volunteers may enjoy this short article and video link from the Huffington Post. A mayfly hatch in Wisconsin was detectable by radar and reduced visibility in the area. Thank you to Barb Cook for sharing it with us all.
Dear river friends,
It’s a mixed bag this week for E. coli results. We have 549.3 colonies of E. coli per 100 millitres (exceeding the Merrimack’s Class B standard of 406) on Site 5, just behind the Merrimack State Forest, in Boscawen to a low of 31.3 on Site 1 on the Pemigewasset River just above its confluence with the Winnipesaukee River. In between we have a few higher-than-normal results as well as some respectable ones. ecoli2014 7.24.14 to download this week’s (and those of the two previous sampling days’ ) results or take a quick load at this graphic provided by UMRLACer Madeleine Mineau.
Once, again, the message is, “When it rains; it’s poor” (see our 6.23.14 post). That means that when there are heavy rains or snow melt, everything on the land and road surfaces goes into the nearest storm drain (flushing untreated into rivers and streams) or directly down river banks into the water.
There are some very high and fairly low results this week. That could be due to some areas that were flushed during the last rain storms and have not accumulated a lot new bacteria. We test for E. coli because it is present in the digestive tracts of animals, including humans, so it is the best indicator available that tells us that poop is getting into the water, among other pollutants.
Please visit the beta version of our new forum at http://www.MerrimackRiver.org. We are posting these updates and testing results and welcome your comments.
As always, never hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
Very best wishes for a watery weekend,
—
Michele L. Tremblay, UMMP Program Director
and
Steve Landry, Sampling Supervisor
Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program
Upper Merrimack River Local Advisory Committee
http://www.merrimackriver.org/
This one has the title of the world’s largest (but not heaviest) insect. The upper Merrimack is blessed with Megalopterans and they are very impressive but not quite this large! See the full story by clicking here.
Dear river friends,
The results for this week’s monitoring: ecoli 7.10.14 are far better than our last report for samples taken on June 26. All eleven of our sites’ E. coli counts fall well below the state’s Class B standard of 406 colonies per 100 millilitres. All but two sites fall within the Class A or designated swim beach standard of 88 colonies per 100 millilitres. This is one of the main differences between monitoring during or just after rainfall (June 26) and dry weather monitoring (July 10). You may recall from our last message that “when it rains; it’s poor,” meaning water quality suffers when rain washes off the land excrement from failed septic systems, pet areas, and agricultural operations.
You will notice that Site 2 is far higher than the other sites this week. While its value is still well within the Class B range, it is far and away higher than the other ten sites. If this happens consistently, we may sample above and below it (called “bracketing the site”) to determine the source of the bacteria. The last time that we did this, we found a sewage pipe that was discharging directly in to the Pemigewasset River. We worked with the City of Franklin, who worked with the landowner to disconnect the pipe and prevent it from flowing into the river. Water quality at that site improved dramatically and immediately.
Because of the Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program’s Bacteria People, this and other water quality violations are identified and can be promptly addressed, making swimming, boating, fishing, and other activities safer for everyone. Thank you, Bacteria People for your dedication and commitment. Thank you Franklin Waste Water Treatment Plan for processing the samples so quickly and accurately for the weekend. Your work has been and will continue to be meaningful to and appreciated by residents and visitors to the upper Merrimack.
Best wishes for a happy and watery weekend.
—
Michele L. Tremblay, UMMP Program Director
and
Steve Landry, Sampling Supervisor
Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program
Upper Merrimack River Local Advisory Committee
http://www.merrimackriver.org/