The Watershed Watch program at URI relies on volunteers to test local waters and bring samples to URI for further analysis.
This program has amassed critically important data for understanding our environment and, especially, changes we are seeing in our water quality.
But some lakes and ponds are not being tested because more volunteers are needed to spend an hour or two per week in the summer.
I've been a Watershed Watch volunteer for 5 years and it's been very rewarding to see the data that Maureen (my Watershed Watch partner) and I collect adding to the environmental database for Rhode Island.
Volunteers from the Watershed Watch program at the University of Rhode Island have monitored water quality in local ponds, rivers and streams for 25 years, and it has given them tremendous insight into how climate affects the health of these water bodies. Rhode Island has one of the nation’s most extensive databases of water quality information, thanks in large part to volunteers in the URI Watershed Watch program.
In Charlestown, volunteers are needed for the following locations:
- Cross Mills Pond, behind Simple Pleasures
- Green Hill Pond, on the border with South Kingston
- King Tom Pond, South of Route 1 between Charlestown Wine and Spirits and South Shore Mental Health Center
- Maple Lake, near South County Trail and Maple Lake Farm Road
- Ninigret Pond, (testing partner needed)
- Quonochontaug Pond, (testing partner needed)
- Perry Pond, behind the old Cross Mills Fire Station
- Saw Mill Pond, off of Old Mill Road
Similar experience is not needed. Classroom training will be provided on Sunday April 7 or Tuesday April 9 and field training will be provided Saturdays May 4 or May 11.
For more information or to discuss volunteering for one of our open sites, contact Program Coordinator Elizabeth Herron at 401-874-4552 or by email. You can also visit the program’s web site here for detailed information about the program.
More information about Watershed Watch
URI Watershed Watch is a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program. Trained program volunteers conduct field monitoring every week between May and October. Once a week on a day of their choice, volunteers monitor for water clarity and temperature. Every two weeks they also monitor algae concentrations and dissolved oxygen. On several designated dates, volunteers collect water samples that are analyzed at URI for nutrients, acidity and bacteria. Many volunteers work in teams to share their monitoring duties.
Launched in 1988 with 25 volunteers monitoring a dozen lakes, the program has grown to nearly 400 volunteers and 270 sites on 100 different water bodies – lakes, rivers, streams, salt ponds and bays -- throughout the state and extending along the coast to Mystic, Conn.
Trained program volunteers conduct field monitoring every week between May and October. Once a week on a day of their choice, volunteers monitor for water clarity and temperature. Every two weeks they also monitor algae concentrations and dissolved oxygen. On several designated dates, volunteers collect water samples that are analyzed at URI for nutrients, acidity and bacteria. Many volunteers work in teams to share their monitoring duties.
Volunteers come from all walks of life and are of all ages, occupations, educational backgrounds and interests. Each is matched to a specific location that they will be in charge of monitoring. Since ponds, lakes and some salt water sites are monitored at their deepest point, a boat, canoe or kayak is needed, as well as some free time once a week in the middle of the day. River and stream sites, monitored early in the morning at mid-stream, are generally more accessible, with few requiring a boat for access.
The program is sponsored by the URI Cooperative Extension in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and about 40 local organizations and communities.
What have we learned?
The floods of 2010, for instance, flushed nitrogen out of smaller rivers and streams and into larger ones, according to program director Linda Green. Nitrogen, the nutrient that causes algae blooms, was at its lowest levels in small rivers in the weeks after the flood and increased through the rest of the year, while large rivers had high nitrogen levels following the flood and levels decreased as the year progressed.
The dry weather in 2007 also affected water bodies differently.
“Water quality declined in water bodies that depend on frequent rains to flush out excess nutrients, while others improved because new nutrients weren’t washed in or because the water table became so low that septic systems couldn’t affect them,” explained Elizabeth Herron, Watershed Watch program coordinator.
The extremely hot summers of 2005 and 2006 caused temperatures in some ponds to reach 86 degrees at times, which is high enough to reduce dissolved oxygen levels and stress organisms living in the water. And the mild fall and winter in those years increased the growing season for algae, particularly blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, which results in algal blooms that reduce oxygen levels when they die. Increasingly severe rainstorms also caused additional run-off from roadways and lawns to enter water bodies, further degrading their water quality and reducing groundwater recharge.