Merrimack watershed bacteria results: June 28, 2022
Dear river and watershed friends,
After a pandemic hiatus, the Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program Adopt-a-River Site Sponsors and volunteers began the 2022 bacteria sampling season with 100% sampling at 100% of its eleven sites from Franklin to Bow.
The results shown below are the probable number of E. coli bacteria colonies for every 100 millilitres of water. All warm blooded animals (including we humans) have E. coli in their guts. That means that bacteria are an indicator that poop has found its way to the water. This could be a result of stormwater runoff, failed septic systems, mis-connected pipes that are meant to transport household waste to a treatment plant, pet or wildlife waste from river watershed and, and other sources.
To protect public health, State designated swim beaches are not allowed to exceed 88 colonies of E. coli per 100ml. Class B waters (all of our sites are designated as Class B) shall not exceed 406 colonies. These designations do not always reflect real-time water quality. The desigation indicates what uses, e.g., swimming, fishing, should be supported by maintaining water quality.
Almost all of the sites this week are below the swim beach designation. Site 1 is well below the Class B designation. These low bacteria counts are expected when there has been little or no rain.
You hear us say often, “When it rains, it’s poor,” which means that you may wish to wait a day or so after it rains before recreating in a surface water. Sample results are as of Tuesday morning, June 28, 2022. Results may change from day-to-day, depending on upstream conditions and rainstorms that may have occured after Tuesday morning.
Here are the details.
| Site number and description | results |
| #1 Pemigewasset at Route 3, Franklin | 169 |
| #2 Winnipesaukee at Trestle, Franklin | 31 |
| #3 Merrimack R. above FWWTF, Franklin | 30 |
| #4 Merrimack R. below FWWTF, Franklin | 52 |
| #5 Merrimack at Jamie Welch, Boscawen | 63 |
| #6 Merrimack at US Route 4, Canterbury | 41 |
| #7 Contoocook at Rivco, Penacook | 20 |
| #8 Merrimack at Sewalls Falls, Concord | 10 |
| #9 Merrimack at Manchester St., Concord | 31 |
| #10 Merrimack at Blue Seal, Bow | 10 |
| #11 Merrimack at Garvins Falls, Bow | 30 |
Please join us in thanking our Adopt-a-River Site Sponsors that make the Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program possible (listed in order of their sponsored sites).
Watts Regulator / Webster Valve
Franklin Savings Bank
Franklin Waste Water Treatment Plant (two sites)
Elektrisola
Nelson Analytical
Essex Hydro
Aries Engineering
GZA Environmental
Granite Shore Power (two sites)
You’ll next hear from us in two weeks with new a round of sampling results.
Please visit our fresh and newly designed forum at MerrimackRiver.org/forum and our new, Upper Merrimack Watershed Association site: MerrimackRiver.org for further information. 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