As we enter July, our Community Water Action in Toledo (CWAT) water quality monitoring program is nearly halfway through the season!
The sampling season runs from April – October. This season we have 24 volunteers, as well as more helping hands from the Toledo Zoo ZOOTeens! These citizen scientists use monitoring instruments to report on water conditions at designated sites across four Northwest Ohio waterways: Maumee River, Portage River, Ottawa River, and Swan Creek. Volunteers pick a route of consisting of 3-4 sites, receive training on our equipment and sampling protocol, and then collect vital data about the health of local waterways.
74 successful samples have been collected from our 27 sites so far. Earlier this month, an incident occurred involving a sewer collapse that led to contamination in Swan Creek. With this news, PCS volunteers have been asked to skip 5 of the sites that have been affected by the spill and avoid those sites until further notice.
PCS understands that events like this, while unfortunate, are important to learn from, so these sites will still be sampled by our staff. This data is important to capture and share with the larger network of water quality sampling organizations, including the Lake Erie Volunteer Science Network (LEVSN) that we work closely with on this program.
Our volunteers make this program possible. Even with a few bumps in the road, they get the job done!
We couldn’t accomplish this work without all of you. Thank you!!💧
