To All Water Quality Monitoring Volunteers, (past, present, and future),
WRWA board members had a retreat in January and met again last evening to start the implementation of some of our goals. We need people like you to help us out since a board of six members cannot possibly have a corner on the market of expertise, enthusiasm, and vision that is needed to help WRWA pursue its organizational goals and continue our flagship Water Quality Monitoring Program (WQMP). We need people like you to rally around this program that takes organization, time commitment, and other skills.
We would be grateful to you if you can help WRWA in the following ways:
1. Be willing to meet with other volunteers for initial discussions that build a vision of how to organize and structure this year’s program. (Rebecca Salem has been program director for the past two years, and she is now our Board president. She will give guidance and resources, and answer questions, but she cannot undertake the full organization and report writing since we have other objectives to work on this year as a Board.)
2. The initial meeting(s) can help us build a network of WQMP volunteers and reveal the strengths and degree of commitment of all of you, possibly in the areas of grant and report writing.
3. Volunteering to provide leadership for this project. We will not be able to continue without you.
Our continuing with this program is contingent upon recruiting an intern. For the water quality monitoring to continue, we have applied for an intern through SCA who will possess the necessary skills. We will not know if SCA can provide us with this intern until March. This intern will ultimately be the point person in administering the program. In the meantime, however, we need to know that he/she will have a group of dedicated volunteers, some of you who may volunteer to drive to Waterbury to take the water samples to the lab for testing or do other tasks in addition to collecting the samples. (We have investigated having the samples mailed to Waterbury, but the window of time for getting the samples tested cannot be met this way.)
We are applying for grant money for the lab tests so the WQMP committee of volunteers does not have to worry about that significant expense.
We can do this, but we need you! Please email Rebecca Salem, Board President at westriver@vermontel.net to let us know if you can help out, and then we’ll set a date for a meeting. Thanks!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Ice out?
When do you think "ice-out" will be on the lower West River this year? That is, when will flow freely to the Connecticut River? I'm going to predict March 16. Or perhaps you'd like to wager when the last ice shanty will be removed from the Retreat Meadows. Share your predictions and let's have some fun with this perennial milestone!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
National River Rally
Rally in the Chesapeake! The River Network's annual "National River Rally" will be held in Baltimore May 29-June 1, 2009. Check out the website for more info if you're interested: www.rivernetwork.org/rally. Or call 503-542-8384. They're going to have a plethora of field trips, workshops, exhibits, trainings, and a whole lot more. The featured speaker, Peter Forbes, is from right here in Vermont!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Things Can Happen
It is wonderful to live here in Southeastern Vermont, especially if you love the outdoors. We seem to have miles of waterways and trails and wonderful back roads to use for fishing, hunting, skiing or snowmobiling, biking and hiking. In fact, that is both a good thing and a problem. When times are good, we forget how quickly things can change. Just look at the economy if you think I exaggerate.
I grew up in a very rural town in Northeastern Ohio. We fished, swam and generally spent our growing up years playing in the watershed of a small river that meandered along until it emptied into Lake Erie. By the time I was in high school, a frightening disease called polio was afflicting a significant number of young people. We learned that one major source of the disease was the water we were playing in.
This situation did not spur any major cleanup and sometime later you probably heard about the "river that caught on fire." Yes, it was the Cuyahoga River Watershed that we were playing in.
I personally saw how fast an environment that was clean and healthy could become a place of filth and disease. That happens when we don't take care of what we have. As my mother used to tell me, it is easier to keep your room clean than to let it go and then have to do a major job to get back to where you should be. She was right! And that is even more true of our wonderful environment than it is of a kid's bedroom. Get the message?
I grew up in a very rural town in Northeastern Ohio. We fished, swam and generally spent our growing up years playing in the watershed of a small river that meandered along until it emptied into Lake Erie. By the time I was in high school, a frightening disease called polio was afflicting a significant number of young people. We learned that one major source of the disease was the water we were playing in.
This situation did not spur any major cleanup and sometime later you probably heard about the "river that caught on fire." Yes, it was the Cuyahoga River Watershed that we were playing in.
I personally saw how fast an environment that was clean and healthy could become a place of filth and disease. That happens when we don't take care of what we have. As my mother used to tell me, it is easier to keep your room clean than to let it go and then have to do a major job to get back to where you should be. She was right! And that is even more true of our wonderful environment than it is of a kid's bedroom. Get the message?
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Water Related Events - Educational Series on Drinking Water
| Wednesday, February 04, 2009 | 12 to 1:30pm | Howe Library Mayer Room 13 South Street Hanover, NH 03755 | All About Aquifers. A panel discussion featuring Carl Renshaw and Lance Hansen will address issues relating to Aquifers, their purpose, their contribution to water pollution and various remediation efforts. In addition to providing general knowledge of the functions of Aquifers, the panel participants will also focus on local Aquifers and their impact on our water. This panel is part of the LWV-UV Natural Resources Committee February program series: "Whose Water is it Anyway?" For additional information, see "What's New". |
| Wednesday, February 11, 2009 | 12 to 1:30pm | Howe Library Mayer Room 13 South Street Hanover, NH 03755 | Who Has Rights to Our Water?. Jon Groveman and Brandon Kernan, local experts on water regulation and ownership rights will discuss current issues impacting the use and sale of local water rights. Topics that will be addressed include the legal ownership structure of "public" water, the bottling and sale of such water and the right to remove large quantities of water. The Vermont Water Bill of 2008, as well as the protection of ground and surface water under New Hampshire law will also be discussed. This panel discussion is part of the LWV-UV Natural Resources Committee February series: "Whose Water is It Anyway?' For Additional Information, see "What's New." |
| Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | 12 to 1:30pm | Howe Library Mayer Room 13 South Street Hanover, NH 03755 | Bottled Water: Taking Back The Tap. Water experts Marc Morgan and Nancy Toth, along with Sustainability professionals from Dartmouth, the town of Hanover and the Hanover Coop will discuss the economic and environmental impact of drinking bottled water. The panel will address the disposal of water bottles, how best to assure the safety of drinking water and local efforts to reduce the use of bottled water in our community. This panel discussion is part of the LWV-UV Natural Resource Committee's February program series "Whose Water is it Anyway?" For additional information, see "What's New." |
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Results for E.coli sampling for August 19, 2008
West River Watershed cfu/100 ml
Milkhouse Meadows 48
Dummerston Bridge 61
Newfane Swim Hole 54
Brookline Bridge no sample
Ellen Ware Road 102
Scott Covered Bridge 28
Jamaica State Park 23
South Londonderry no sample
Winhall Hollow Swim Hole no sample
Pikes Falls 152
Jamaica Town Center 138
Williams River
Rockingham Trestle 461
Bartonsville no sample
Chester WWTF 680
Rainbow Rock 1200
Saxtons River
Sandy Beach 461
Saxtons River WWTF 96
Saxtons River Field 291
Whetstone Brook
Behind CoOp 261
Stark Road 24
Milkhouse Meadows 48
Dummerston Bridge 61
Newfane Swim Hole 54
Brookline Bridge no sample
Ellen Ware Road 102
Scott Covered Bridge 28
Jamaica State Park 23
South Londonderry no sample
Winhall Hollow Swim Hole no sample
Pikes Falls 152
Jamaica Town Center 138
Williams River
Rockingham Trestle 461
Bartonsville no sample
Chester WWTF 680
Rainbow Rock 1200
Saxtons River
Sandy Beach 461
Saxtons River WWTF 96
Saxtons River Field 291
Whetstone Brook
Behind CoOp 261
Stark Road 24
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
