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Dear River and Watershed Friends,

Good news: on our very first day of the season we not only had 100% sampling at 100% of our sites but the E. coli bacteria readings from yesterday are very low.

None of the eleven samples taken yesterday, June 29, 2017, from the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers in Franklin to the the mainstem Merrimack in Bow had levels exceeding 64.5 colonies of E. coli bacteria for every 100 millilitres of water. That’s great news for your weekend because designated swim beaches are not allowed to exceed 88 colonies and Class B waters (all of our sites are Class B waters) should be below 406 colonies. Here are the details.

Our next sampling day is Thursday, July 13, 2017 so you will hear from us on July 14.

Thank you to our wonderful Adopt-a-River Site sponsors, sample courier, site volunteers, Adopt-a-River Site sponsors, and the crew at Franklin Waste Water Treatment Plant. There would be no Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program without them.

Please visit our fresh and newly designed forum at MerrimackRiver.org/forum.
You can also find us at MerrimackRiver.org for further information or don’t hesitate to contact us at UMMP@MerrimackRiver.org or 603.796.2615 should you have any questions.

Sincerely,
                                              
Michele L Tremblay                          Stephen C. Landry
Program Manager                             Sampling Supervisor

Please click here to register

Baker Free Library
509 South Street
Bow, NH 03304
7:00 PM

Have you seen a new aquatic plant and aren’t sure what it is? Do you care about your local river or stream? Do you want to do more to prevent invasive species infestations? You can help stop infestations in their tracks when you become a River Runner™.

Since 2009, the New Hampshire Rivers Council River Runners have been the early detection network for Didymo, Eurasian Milfoil, and other invasive species in our rivers and streams. Training is fun and free and monitoring is easy—just be observant when paddling, swimming, and fishing in your favorite river and then report what you find. You’ll meet new friends and learn valuable indentification skills.

If you have found an aquatic plant and want to know what it is, you can bring a sample to a River Runners workshop near you. Preserve the sample by placing it in a ziplock bag with a wet paper towel (don’t fill the bag with water) and store it in the refrigerator. Make a note of where the specimen was found and the date of its collection. Do not allow fragments of the plant to spread in the waterbody.

These workshops are free thanks to support from generous gifts from New Hampshire Rivers Council members like you. There is no charge to attend but space is limited so registration is required. Please click here to register.

Prospective hosts: please contact the New Hampshire Rivers Council at 603.228.6472 to arrange a workshop near you.

Dear River and Watershed Friends,

Good news: on our very first day of the season we not only had 100% sampling at 100% of our sites but the E. coli bacteria readings from yesterday are very low.

None of the eleven samples taken yesterday, June 15, 2017, from the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers in Franklin to the the mainstem Merrimack in Bow had levels exceeding 46.4 colonies of E. coli bacteria for every 100 millilitres of water. That’s great news for your weekend because designated swim beaches are not allowed to exceed 88 colonies and Class B waters (all of our sites are Class B waters) should be below 406 colonies. Here are the details.

If you are interested, here are the flows from yesterday juxtaposed with summer median flows for the four larger rivers on which we take water samples (cfs = cubic feet per second).

Winnipesaukee River

• UMMP sample day = 1290 cfs
• Summer median = 518 cfs

Pemigewasset River

• UMMP sample day = 679
• Summer median = 740

Contoocook River

• UMMP sample day = 509 cfs
• Summer median = 565 cfs

Merrimack River

• UMMP sample day = 2710 cfs
• Summer median = 1970 cfs

The flows for some of our rivers are pretty high with others approaching their summer norms or are below them. How does that affect water quality? The old saying is, “Dilution is the solution to pollution.” If we had taken these samples right after a big rain storm, we might be saying “When it rains; it’s poor.” That is because right after a large rain, nutrients including runoff from failed septic systems, wildlife, and pet waste, flow right into brooks and rivers.

Our next sampling day is Thursday, June 29, 2017 so you will hear from us on June 30.

Thank you to our wonderful Adopt-a-River Site sponsors, sample courier, site volunteers, Adopt-a-River Site sponsors, and the crew at Franklin Waste Water Treatment Plant. There would be no Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program without them.

Please visit our fresh and newly designed forum at MerrimackRiver.org/forum.
You can also find us at MerrimackRiver.org for further information or don’t hesitate to contact us at UMMP@MerrimackRiver.org or 603.796.2615 should you have any questions.

Sincerely,
                                           
Michele L Tremblay                          Stephen C. Landry
Program Manager                             Sampling Supervisor