Southeastern VT - The West River Watershed Alliance will begin its sixth annual Water Quality Monitoring Program (WQMP) on May 31st with a pot-luck, raffle-drawing and volunteer training session at the Townshend Dam Recreation Area in Townshend.  The WRWA trains over twenty volunteers every summer to collect water samples from over twenty monitoring sites on the West, Williams and Saxtons Rivers and the Whetstone Brook in southeastern Vermont. Volunteers bring their samples to one of two drop-off sites where they are picked up and transported to La Rosa Lab in Waterbury, VT for analysis. Mostly, the monitoring parameters indicate where the streams and rivers could be suffering from bacterial and/or nutrient pollution. 

There are many services that this data collection provides for local communities, regional conservation organizations, and state agencies.  For example, when monitoring sites are located just upstream of swimming holes the data from these informs citizens and visitors about unsafe levels of pathogenic bacteria present in the water. There are relatively few spots on the rivers that suffer from chronic levels of bacterial pollution, but they do exist, and without the WQMP, nobody would know about it.

In addition, all of the monitoring sites provide “baseline data” for regional conservation organizations and state agencies.  This data gives natural resource professionals a picture of the river that would only be taken once every five years without WRWA volunteers. Baseline data does a couple of very important things:
 
It demonstrates areas on the rivers that could be impacted by bacterial or nutrient pollution.  The Agency of Natural Resources uses this information to “red flag” these sites for further assessment.  It is also used to document the excellent water quality that exists within the watershed and in turn protects these waters from future degradation. Finally, it helps to guide regional planning efforts, such as the Basin 11 planning process that just completed this past winter. 
 
This year, WRWA volunteers will have the opportunity to survey their monitoring sites for the presence of invasive aquatic species, such as Rock Snot and Japanese knotweed. This will add more value to the program while providing all parties with more information as to how, when, and where the spread of “invasives” is occurring in the watershed.
 
Volunteers are provided with all necessary training and equipment. Sampling takes place every other Tuesday morning from June 10th through September 16th. We are currently looking for volunteers who live in or near Chester, Saxtons River, Bellows Falls, Westminster, South Londonderry, Peru, Brattleboro, and Windham. It takes between thirty and sixty minutes for most volunteers to collect and transport their samples to the drop-off site.  Some of the sites are visited once a month and some of them are visited twice, so, there are plenty of options! Please contact Rebecca Salem at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested. Hope to see you this summer!

The West River Watershed Alliance (WRWA) is a private, non-profit organization that has been monitoring the waters of the West, Williams, and Saxtons Rivers since 2003. If you would like more information about WRWA and how you can be a part of what we do, please e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

West River Watershed Alliance – News Release
PO Box 402
Brattleboro, VT 05301
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  
 
May 21, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Rebecca Salem
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  
802.875.5733