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Dear River and Watershed Friends,

Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program volunteers began the bacteria sampling season with 100% sampling at 100% of the eleven sites on the Merrimack River from Franklin to Bow and on the Pemigewasset, Winnipesaukee, and Contoocook Rivers. This week continued that excellent trend.

We have a fourth (three this year and one at the end of last year) consistent high reading on the Pemigewasset. Since then, the City of Franklin has been in contact and offered their resources to locate and correct, if possible this pollution source. A concerned angler also provided insight. With that information and our knowledge of the area and data, dedicated volunteers braved ticks and poison ivy and conducted a visual shoreline survey. Our volunteer organization has voted to increase our sampling to pinpoint the source. We will work with local and state officials to determine the source of these high E. coli readings.

All other samples are well within the Class B standard and most are within the Class A standard.

As a reminder,  the readings shown below are the number of E. coli bacteria colonies for every 100 millilitres of water. Warm blooded animals (including humans) all have E. coli in their guts. State 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.

You’ll hear from us again after the July 26 sampling day.

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