Thanks to many dedicated volunteers, we are able to maintain a series of monthly monitoring sites along the Ipswich River as part of our monthly water quality testing program. The volunteers test the rivers’ health by measuring dissolved oxygen, water temperature, conductivity, as well as recording characteristics on water color, odor, clarity and other observations.
There are 22 monitoring sites on the Ipswich River, plus 10 sites on tributary streams. There is a particular site at the bridge on Boston St. in Middleton, labeled IP06, approximately 6 miles from the start of the Ipswich River in Wilmington. This has been one of the longest running monitoring sites, with Katharine Brown, along with many others and now Mary Hatton and her daughter Sarah (pictured above), collecting valuable data on the health of the Ipswich River since 1997! This bridge is near the start of the Independence Greenway Rail Trail and the Bostik Corporation.
South Middleton Dam at high flowThe Ipswich River falls an average of about 1 foot per mile from the source in Wilmington to the sea in Ipswich. This means much of the river is slow flowing with long meanders that make the river such a good place to go paddling! The section of river at IP06 near the Boston St. Bridge, however, has the single largest drop on the entire river, about 10 feet in only a few hundred yards, creating turbulent, fast flowing water, unlike anywhere else on the river. The sudden drop was desirable for early industry in the area, because the water power could be harnessed by adding a dam. Although the dam no longer functions this way, it is still present, but too far from the road to be seen. Today, this section of river is shaded by many trees and usually has good oxygen levels from being stirred up from falling over the dam and then over the many rocks lining the river bed here.
The river is prone to drying up here and turning into a series of isolated pools, since water stops flowing over the dam at low flows during the summer. The drought of 2016 was especially bad and we know the population of aquatic macroinvertebrates that inhabit the rocks and riffles had declined significantly following this event. We are very interested in preserving the unique habitat qualities provided at this location. The monitors are our eyes and ears, recording the rivers’ health year after year, so we need your help to keep them going!