Citizen scientists critical in monitoring water quality
By DANIEL SARCH, THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
Sep 3, 2024
FRANKLIN — Three volunteers for the Upper Merrimack Watershed Association crossed the Central Street Bridge over the Pemigewasset River, looking out over the foggy horizon. At 7 a.m. on Aug. 27, Mike Hamilton, environmental engineer for Watts Water Technologies, threw a small bucket over the bridge into the river, and pulled it up, filled with a water sample to test E. coli in the river.
Hamilton then dropped off the sample at the Franklin Wastewater Treatment Plant, where it’ll be brought to the Public Health Laboratories in Concord. Samples from 11 test sites were analyzed, and the data released at the end of that week, distributed through the watershed association newsletter. Hamilton spoke about why it’s important he help collect this data.
“I live right over here. My dogs swim in this river, so it’s a big part of the community, and just another way to give back,” he said.
The Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program is a 100% volunteer-run program of the Upper Merrimack Watershed Association. Every summer, volunteers take samples in the rivers of Merrimack County to test for E. coli bacteria every two weeks, from June 18 to Aug. 27. Co-Director Steve Landry said the samples they collect fill the gaps in the statewide river monitoring network of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. The state uses the data to make assessments of river health, which is a source of pride for the volunteers, that they contribute to something beyond monitoring the local river corridor.
“I think that’s the exciting thing for volunteers like Mike and I, is that we’re participating in a river assessment program that normally wouldn’t have this intensive of a summer bacteria monitoring schedule, because the state has limited resources and abilities,” Landry said. “There’s like 17,000 river miles in New Hampshire. They can’t sample every river every other week.”
E. coli comes into the water from warm-blooded animals, including humans, that have E. coli in the gut. Positive samples indicate fecal matter has found its way into the water. This can be due to stormwater runoff, failed septic systems, poorly connected pipes transporting household waste to a treatment plant, pet or wildlife waste from within the river watershed, and other sources. To protect public health, the state has designated swimming beaches not to exceed 88 colonies of E. coli per 100 mL. All the sites are Class B waters, which cannot exceed 406 colonies. According to Co-Director Michele Tremblay, Class B is still clean. Despite being designated Class B, the site on the Pemigewasset came in at under 10 colonies of E. coli per 100 mL.
“That means that you can swim, you can fish, you can eat the fish that you catch. And if someone wanted to have an intake for a water supply system, they could do that as long as they had proper treatment,” Tremblay said.
All New Hampshire surface waters are designated Class A or B. The results, however, are snapshots in time when the sample was collected, not necessarily a determination of long-term river health, as anything that happens a day before or after can change the data drastically. An example of this was on July 2, when a sample of the Merrimack River at Garvin Falls in Bow read at 613 colonies, well above the Class B limit. While only a guess, Tremblay believes it could have been waterfowl congregating in that location, leaving behind waste. It became clear it wasn’t a serious problem after the next sample two weeks later on July 16, read at under 10 colonies.
Another indicator for poor quality may be rain.
“We always like to say, ‘When it rains, it’s poor,’” Tremblay said. “So going swimming in a river, for instance, isn’t a great idea after there’s been a big rainstorm, because everything is flushed in, from storm drains to lawns to fields. Anywhere that isn’t vegetated, all of that goes into the river.”
During past summers, watershed association volunteers set wire baskets filled with rocks in 17 sites from Franklin to Bow, which aim to catch bugs and benthic macroinvertebrates in the river. These bugs are preserved in jars, then identified during the winter to help determine the long-term health of the water. Bugs can often be a good indicator of water health, as some bugs are sensitive to large amounts of pollutants. This summer, the organization didn’t collect bugs, as they have a smaller laboratory which allows for fewer volunteers. Landry spoke to the importance of the bugs in the water.
“The aquatic insects part of it, that’s long-term river health assessments, because those bugs live in there. They’re part of the food chain,” Landry said. “We get a lot more understanding of the river and long-term river health with the bugs. But it’s a big undertaking and takes a lot of time and many, many more volunteers.”
Tremblay said they may look for bugs in November, and plan to set baskets next summer.
None of this work is done without the help of volunteers. While some volunteers already work in the environmental and sustainability industry, like Tremblay, who works as an environmental consultant, and Landry, who works for the state as an environmental program manager, many volunteers are simply concerned or curious citizens who want to help. Volunteers often come from adopt-a-river site sponsor organizations. In Franklin, this includes Franklin Savings Bank, the wastewater treatment plant, and Watts Water Technologies. Volunteers are trained to properly collect samples, and in the winter, observe bugs under a microscope for further research. Landry described volunteers viewing bugs under the microscope for the first time.
“People who had no idea that mayflies, crayfish, flies and midges live in the river, and their whole world gets brighter and [it’s] more enlightening,” Landry said.
Claudette Verville, 79, a seamstress from Allenstown, has volunteered her time to the program since 1998. The microscope observations of the bugs caught her attention. She loved it so much that over 20 years ago, her children bought her a microscope, with the advice of Tremblay and Landry. Since then, Verville has used her microscope to finish observing samples at home to speed up the identification process. In her free time, she often looks for bugs under rocks, behind leaves, and in the water. She shares her passion with her children, nieces and nephews.
“When everybody’s sitting and saying, ‘Oh God, we’re so bored,’ I’d say, ‘OK, let’s go and see what we can find,’” Verville said. “And that’s what we would do, and they’d all have a chance to take a look at whatever they found on the microscope. So that kind of made it fun and exciting.”
Ultimately, beyond the current contributions of volunteers to the local watershed, Landry hopes the experience will raise awareness of the importance of river health, and advocate for it in the future. He believes Verville’s story is a great example of inspiring passion in a new generation.
“They [will] carry that forward, maybe tell a neighbor or tell their children, and it helps kind of spread this awareness that there’s a lot of great indicators out there of river health.”
To learn more about the program and to volunteer, call Tremblay at 603-796-2615.
