IRWA is working with the Parker, Ipswich, Essex Rivers Restoration Partnership (PIE-Rivers) to monitor and improve water quality in the Ipswich River watershed. As the partnership administrator, we recently received a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to transform water quality monitoring in our region. This is essential work as water quality threats impact individuals who draw from the watershed as well as the Great Marsh Area that all three watersheds discharge into.
With this new funding, we have secured more advanced testing equipment, which allows us to track chloride levels from road salt, as well as dissolved oxygen and temperature levels along the length of the Ipswich River. Alongside our other partners, Parker River Clean Water Association and Chebacco Lake & Watershed Association, we are coordinating monitoring for phosphate, nitrate and bacterial pathogens and testing for phosphorus and chlorophyll-a in Chebacco Lake to help track data related to cyanobacteria blooms. By working as a coalition, we can more effectively coordinate long-term regional monitoring to effectively identify and manage pollution problems.
The pollution data we collect will be uploaded to the EPA’s How’s My Waterway Tool, [www.mywaterways.epa.gov] providing local residents the opportunity to track pollution levels in the river. Improving water quality in our region is within the hands of each community member and how they choose to use the land. Bacterial pathogens, nitrates, and phosphates often originate from sources like fertilizer runoff and failed septic systems and can be kept out of waterways through individual action. Oftentimes the simplest way to help the river is to cut out chemical usage on your landscape.