We’re highlighting our RiverWatch monitors because they are the driving force behind our Clean Water Program (and are generally amazing). A year ago, I wrote about two of our Middleton RiverWatch monitors braving a very cold spring morning for the sake of the river:
“Some river testing days, Liz Cameron admits, she has to put the dissolved oxygen test bottle in her jacket to induce the precipitate to settle. The river itself was temping at 4 degrees Celsius, which Judy Schneider was all too aware of as she dipped her hands in to collect a sample.
The testers each took a turn looking at the test strips and reading the levels for the new nitrate, phosphate, and chloride tests. There was much head-shaking over the chloride levels, but little surprise. They were, after all, testing on a main road, and standing on the scattered remains of the thorough salting the road had been given not long ago. Any road salt that washed in further up river, Judy commented, will show up in their readings as well.”
When I last wrote about the ladies of Maple St, that is our two Mortalo Landing monitors Judy and Liz, they were the only monitors in Middleton testing for conductivity. The conductivity tests were new to the RiverWatch program in 2017 and a year later we have added this test to the Boston St landing, just below the South Middleton Dam.
The RiverWatch monitors not only collect data that is important for our restoration work at points all along the river and its tributaries, they provide early detection on pollution, invasive plants, and erosion. If you’d like to see the RiverWatch program keep growing or would like to show our volunteers your thanks for all they do register for Paddle-a-thon 2018 or support a paddler.
The Paddle-a-thon is an opportunity for our community to celebrate the Ipswich River and help ensure it is here for future generations. The Ipswich River provides drinking water for 350,000 people and businesses, yet it was named one of the most endangered rivers in the nation in 2003 and is still in danger today. Last year, paddlers in the annual Paddle-a-thon helped to raise over $35,000 for our Clean Water Program, which helps monitor and protect the health of the Ipswich River.
Join us in this year’s event – June 16th – to raise funds and awareness for the river and for our Clean Water Program.