Programs and Projects
Science and Monitoring

IRWA’s science and monitoring programs include the following:

Monitoring

• RiverWatch Water Quality Monitoring
• Herring Count
• Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring

Studies

• Dissolved Oxygen Study
• Other Studies

RiverWatch Water Quality Monitoring Program

The data that volunteers collect is an incredibly valuable resource documenting the health of the river. A report summarizing 10 years of data is now available. When IRWA launched its volunteer monitoring program in 1988, we monitored only eight main stem sites on a semi-monthly basis. Today, the RiverWatch Program includes nearly 60 volunteers monitoring a total of 29 sites each month. These skilled and dedicated volunteers collect data on air temperature, water temperature, color (visual inspection), odor, depth, velocity, and dissolved oxygen.

Photo: F. Doyle

IRWA has developed a clearinghouse of valuable information that can help citizens and government officials identify and remediate water quality and quantity problems in the river. Monitoring data are compiled into a comprehensive report at the end of each year. Monitoring reports and data are available here.

Resources for volunteers:

• Information on monitoring and quality assurance procedures:
• Riverwatch Volunteer Monitoring Manual (pdf)
• Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) (pdf)
• Data sheets:
  
• Riverwatch Data Sheet (pdf)
• Riverwatch Cross Section Form (pdf)
• 2008 Data Sheet Template (excel)

2008 Water Quality Monitoring Dates

May 18**
June 29
July 27
August 24**
September 28
October 26
November 23**
December 14**
**Indicates that the date is not the last Sunday of the month.

New volunteers:

We are always looking for new volunteers for this program to fill in monitoring sites and as back-up monitors. We are interested in volunteers who:

• Have a willingness to commit to monitoring on one Sunday of each month.
• A long-term commitment is a plus.
• Knowledge of water quality issues is a plus, but definitely not required! The procedures we use can be learned by all.

If you are interested in joining us, visit our Volunteer page to fill out an application.

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Herring Count

Each spring, trained volunteers count river herring swimming up the fish ladder on the Ipswich Mills Dam. Since 1999, IRWA has organized this yearly count in order to estimate the number of river herring returning to the Ipswich River to spawn. Trained volunteers sign up for 10 minute time slots throughout the day. Data from prior fish counts is available here.

Ipswich Mills Dam Fish Ladder

River herring begin their lives in freshwater. Juveniles swim downstream in the fall and, using their sense of smell, return to their breeding stream 3 to 4 years later, when they are roughly 10-11 inches long. Adults initiate spawning at 57 degrees F, and cease spawning when water temperatures reach 81 degrees F.

The Ipswich River's once thriving populations of alewife (a species of river herring) served as a major source of food and income for the early settlers of the watershed. Unfortunately, this fishery has been severely impacted due to obstructions on the main stem of the river (keeping alewife from reaching their spawning ponds) and the use of spawning ponds for municipal water supply.

The Division of Marine Fisheries has installed a trap at the top of the fish ladder to monitor the health of river herring populations and stocking efforts on the Ipswich. This data will also help IRWA to check our statistical methods for estimating herring populations from our volunteer counts.

*Counting stopped early in 2006 due to the May floods.

If you would like more information or are interested in participating in the count, please contact us at irwainfo@ipswichriver.org .

Click here for more information on fisheries in the Ipswich River, and here for more information on how IRWA is working to improve fisheries' health.

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Benthic Macroinvertebrate (Bugs!) Monitoring

Through this program, IRWA volunteers collect data on "benthic macroinvertebrates" - a biological term that means an organism without a backbone (invertebrate), that can be seen with the naked eye (macro), and lives on the river bed rather than in the water column (benthic). Benthic macroinvertebrates include insects such as larval damselflies, dragonflies, and midges, as well as crustaceans, mollusks, etc. that live in the streambeds of fresh water rivers like the Ipswich.

Macroinvertebrates, or "macros" for short, are an important part of the ecology of the Ipswich River. They can also be used as an indicator of water quality based on their preferences and tolerances. For example, certain macros such as mayfly larvae can only thrive in waters with relatively high dissolved oxygen. Therefore, the presence of mayfly larvae in a river segment is an indicator of high dissolved oxygen. However, if that river segment only contained macros that can tolerate low dissolved oxygen (such as damselfly larvae) we could conclude that the dissolved oxygen levels are too low to support a diverse range of macros.

We are working to re-start this program in 2008. If you are interested in wading and playing with bugs, we could use your help! Please visit our Volunteer page to submit your information.

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Dissolved Oxygen Study

IRWA completed a study on dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the Ipswich River that determined correlations with human and natural factors that affect DO concentration in the Ipswich mainstem. Five variables - increasing temperature, distance upstream from the mouth of the river, increasing depth, increasing previous-28-day-rainfall, and decreasing flow - were found to be significant in contributing to lower dissolved oxygen levels in the Ipswich River basin.

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Other Studies

How Animal Wastes Pollute Water (pdf), a study on fecal coliform bacteria and its relationship to animal wastes in the Ipswich River in Ipswich and Hamilton, was completed with funding from the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment and the USEPA.

In the summer and fall of 1997, a flow study to document the low-flow/no-flow conditions at Upper Basin and control locations was conducted. The results can be seen here in pdf format.

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