The Official Blog of Alabama Water Watch
Radney Elementary School’s gifted student program was honored on Friday, March 1, 2012 when the Best Environmental Education Program (BEEP) Award was presented to Radney teacher, Laurie Barrett.
Continue reading “Radney Elementary wins BEEP statewide environmental ed award”
Dick Bronson received the 2012 W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award at a surprise award ceremony during the Lake Watch of Lake Martin annual meeting at the Elk’s Lodge on Lake Martin on Sunday, February 19th, 2012.
Continue reading “Water Watcher wins 2012 W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award”
Students from Geraldine, North Sand Mountain and Sardis high schools recently received awards for their Earth Team projects in water monitoring. Chip Blanton, FFA instructor at Fort Payne High School, trained area students in water quality monitoring techniques developed by Alabama Water Watch (AWW). AWW has worked for the past two decades developing water chemistry, bacteriological and stream biomonitoring techniques and training citizen volunteers throughout the state to become water monitors . AWW also conducts train-the-trainer workshops to train and certify volunteer trainers. Mr. Blanton was trained as an AWW trainer, and has conducted over a dozen water monitoring workshops in the Fort Payne-area.
AWW personnel traveled to Radney Elementary School in Alexander City in early January to participate in an innovative environmental ed program established between the AWW citizen water monitor group, Lake Watch of Lake Martin, and the school. It has been a big hit with the students, who are now exited to learn more about the environment and the world around them.
Click here for the complete story On Saturday, December 10th, 2011 a group of enthusiastic citizens braved the chilly but beautiful Saugahatchee Creek to learn how benthic macroinvertebrates or “aquatic bugs” can tell us a great deal about water quality. The type of water monitoring technique taught in this workshop is referred to as stream biomonitoring. Put simply, certain aquatic bugs function as indicators of water pollution. Some types have a high tolerance for pollution; therefore if you only find that type of bug in your stream, your stream is not very healthy. However, there are others that cannot tolerate pollution; therefore if they are present you know that your water quality is good, and has been good for some time. Stream biomonitoring is a good method for determining current and past impacts to water quality. AWW Director, Bill Deutsch was quoted in the Volunteer Monitor Newsletter saying, “If a pollution slug moves through on Monday and you monitor on Wednesday, the chemistry looks fine, but the bugs know better. They were there. They are mini-meters, 24/7.”
Before going to the stream participants learned about the different types of aquatic bugs and what factors, particularly human impacts, affect their presence in a stream. They also learned to classify each bug into the appropriate group based on their tolerance for pollution. Once they were at the stream they put their kick-net skills to use to collect around 100 macroinvertebrates. Finally they calculated a biotic index using the bugs collected, which indicated that this particular stretch of the Saugahatchee Creek had “excellent” water quality.
AWW Director, Bill Deutsch and Data Coordinator, Sergio Ruiz-Córdova led the workshop. Also present were several other AWW staff members, undergrad and graduate level students from Auburn University, Alabama A&M and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, municipal staff from Phenix City and Montgomery, a biology teacher, a representative of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and Riverkeepers from the Coosa and Choctawhatchee. In the words of Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper and veteran AWW trainer, Mike Mullen, “The Stream Bioassessment workshop this past Saturday was one of if not the best training workshops that I have ever participated since creation of the AWW program”!
Aquatic critters found in Saugahatchee Creek (click here for more pictures)
AWW intends to offer more opportunities for certification in biomonitoring in the coming year. If you are interested watch our website for upcoming workshops and contact us to let us know that you would like to be part of the next training event. It’s a great opportunity to spend a day at the creek while increasing your knowledge base of aquatic ecology and expanding your water monitoring technique repertoire.
Area volunteer monitoring groups began collaborative watershed-level water monitoring in the Saugahatchee and Chewacla watersheds in and around Auburn, Alabama back in 2007. Members of Save Our Saugahatchee (SOS) and Friends of Chewacla Creek and the Uphapee Watershed (CHEWUP) had been trained and certified in Bacteriological Monitoring by Alabama Water Watch (AWW), and had monitored a few sites for E. coli in the two watersheds. Concerns about sewage contamination in the Auburn-Opelika area were growing, and the watershed “blitz” sampling idea was born. Actually, the idea was adopted from another monitoring group, Lake Wedowee Property Owners Association, that had initiated watershed blitz sampling (lots of key sites throughout the watershed sampled simultaneously to provide a snapshot of watershed health) in the Lake Wedowee Watershed in 2006 (click here for Lake Wedowee story).
Up until 2009, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) used a slightly different measure, fecal coliforms, to measure bacteria contamination in surface waters. Since the presence of E. coli, a subset of fecal coliforms, correlates more closely to the occurrence of human illness from bacteria-laden waters, ADEM switched to an E. coli-based water quality standard in December 2009. Since these relatively new water quality standards are in close agreement with the existing AWW bacteria monitoring protocols, AWW is sticking with its 200 and 600 cut-offs for continuity in citizen monitor data reporting and interpretation (below 200 E. coli/100 mL of water = safe for frequent human contact, 200-600 E. coli/100 mL of water = maximum level for infrequent human contact, and above 600 E. coli/100 mL of water = unsafe for human contact; symbolized by the green-yellow-red traffic light used on AWW bacteria graphs).
SOS and CHEWUP monitors strategized on a sampling plan and conducted their first watershed blitz in January 2007, monitoring 26 sites in the two watersheds. Five years later, blitz sampling has grown to 40 sites on Saugahatchee and Chewacla creeks and their key tributaries.
During SOS’s annual meeting in December 2011, AWW staffer, Eric Reutebuch, presented an overview of the 2011 Bacteria Blitz results (click here to view the Powerpoint). The 2011 sampling plan had
expanded by five additional sample sites on the Pepperell Branch in Opelika. This sampling was added as a part of the implementation of an ADEM-funded watershed management plan, the Saugahatchee Watershed Management Plan (SWaMP) that targets reduction of nonpoint source pollution to clean up the creek. Since Pepperell Branch was added to ADEM’s 303(d) list of polluted streams in 2010 because of excess pathogens, more intensive sampling of this tributary was proposed to aid in quantifying and sourcing bacteria contamination as a part of SWaMP implementation. Interestingly, of the 40 sites sampled in 2011, exactly half (20) were in the Saugahatchee Watershed and the other half were in the Chewacla Watershed (which was unplanned, based solely on volunteer monitor concern and effort).
Summaries of results were presented for the four seasonal bacteria blitzes in both tabular and map formats (see Powerpoint). A total of 45 “hits” (E. coli levels of 200 per 100 milliliters of water or higher) were measured out of 138 samples measured during 2011 blitz efforts (15 of the 45 hits were in the “red zone” – greater than 600 E. coli per 100 milliliters of water, which is unsafe for human contact; 30 were in the “yellow zone” – 200 to 600 E. coli per 100 milliliters of water, which is the maximum allowable level for infrequent human contact).
Total 2011 hits broken out by stream indicated that the two streams 303(d)-listed for pathogens, Parkerson Mill and Pepperell Branch, had the highest levels and occurrences of E. coli contamination (11 and 10 hits respectively). The following graph is a priority ranking of sampled streams based on occurrence of E. coli hits measured by the SOS and CHEWUP water monitors (red portion of bars indicate hits of E. coli greater than 600/100 milliliters of water; yellow portion of bars indicate hits of E. coli in the 200-600/100 milliliter of water range):
Click here for larger graph As seen above, the two 303(d)-listed streams (based on presence of excessive pathogens) were the highest priority streams (had the greatest number of E. coli hits) based on the 2011 citizen bacteria blitz data.
Examples of long-term trends in bacteria concentrations in select streams were presented to show more intensive sampling done by some of the local volunteer monitors, and to emphasize that these data and graphs can be accessed and explored via the AWW homepage (www.alabamawaterwatch.org, click on WATER DATA).
In conclusion:
Watershed monitoring and pollution resolution was accomplished through the efforts of both SOS and CHEWUP volunteer monitors, through training and backstopping provided to volunteers by AWW, through funding provided by grants from ADEM and the World Wildlife Fund, and through collaboration with municipal officials in the cities of Auburn and Opelika – thanks to all for making this part of Alabama a better place to live!
A group of dedicated area residents dipped tubes and collection bottles into the Indian Creek Canal in downtown Huntsville to test an array of water chemistry parameters on November 19th 2011 (click here for Huntsville Time blog article).
Trainers from Alabama Water Watch (AWW) and the Flint River Conservation Association (FRCA) hosted one of AWW’s largest workshops ever, with 33 attendees. Participants included professional agency folks, teachers, students, a couple of spelunkers, and retired folks.
During the classroom portion of the six-hour Water Chemistry workshop, participants learned about Alabama Water Watch, its mission, vision and goals, and an overview of the water environment, pollution and water quality standards, how to develop a water monitoring plan, and how to conduct the six water chemistry tests included in the AWW water test kit. Tests include temperature, pH, alkalinity, hardness, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Secchi disk depth, a measure of water clarity in lakes and ponds, was also demonstrated.
After lunch, the trainees conducted tested the water of Indian Creek Canal. AWW trainers stressed following the protocols in the AWW Water Chemistry Monitoring manual, doing the tests correctly, and conducting consistent monitoring (usually once a month) over the long haul to detect trends and be able to see if water quality is getting better or getting worse.
The diversity in trainees exemplified the many different reasons why folks monitor water and the diversity in the many ways that AWW water data are put into positive action, such as environmental education, outreach, waterbody conservation/ restoration, environmental advocacy/influencing water policy. This group of enthusiastic volunteer monitors will be a big shot in the arm to watershed stewardship in the Huntsville area!
In November, AWW Program Staff dove into somewhat uncharted AWW territory with the first unofficial Young Water Watchers (YWW) workshop. For some time, AWW has been working to develop a way for younger individuals to take part in water quality monitoring, but because of safety concerns and data validity it has taken some time to get there. With support and collaboration of the Mill Creek Watershed Project, coordinated by Katie Dylewski, a pilot chemistry and bacteria workshop was facilitated at Central High School (CHS) in Phenix City.
Students who participated ranged from ages 14-18 and were chosen because of their interest in environmental issues and science. Many will represent CHS in the Alabama Envirothon (www.alabamaenvirothon.org), which is an annual competition where teams compete for recognition by demonstrating their knowledge of environmental science and natural resource management. CHS teachers Susan Lawhon and Meredith Curtis and school nurse Cindy Howard participated with the students and will work with them to develop a regular monitoring plan for the on-campus stream which is part of the Mill Creek Watershed. The data they collect will be especially important for evaluating local watershed health because Mill Creek is listed as “impaired” or contaminated by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The Mill Creek Watershed Project plans to make changes in local land use which will improve water quality in the stream. The student data will help to track changes in the watershed.
Students enjoyed hands-on learning about water quality. One was overheard to say, “I wish biology could always be this fun!” We do too! And we hope that this will be the first of many schools to participate in the Young Water Watchers program. Thanks to Legacy we will have funds to print a set of water monitoring manuals geared to a younger crowd. If you are interested in partnering with us to teach young students about water monitoring or if you’d like to sponsor a YWW workshop please contact the AWW Office.
Over 50 area residents gathered at the Dodge City Restaurant on the east side of Smith Lake on October 29th for the 15th Annual State of the Lake Address. Staff from Alabama Water Watch (AWW) have been invited to the lake by the Smith Lake Environmental Preservation Committee (SLEPC) since 1997 to discuss lake water quality and watershed stewardship activities in the Smith Lake Watershed. This year’s AWW crew consisted of Bill Deutsch, AWW Director, Eric Reutebuch and Mona Scruggs Dominguez. Their State of the Lake presentation included an update on AWW initiatives, evaluation of volunteer monitor water data from Smith Lake, an update on the ongoing Rock Creek Watershed Management Project, and a discussion of various ways that watershed residents can get involved in protecting Smith Lake.
Bill began with a synopsis of AWW activities and accomplishments since the program began in 1992. AWW stats included training and certifying 5,600 Alabamians as water quality monitors, and amassing 67,000 water quality data records in AWW’s online database from over 2,100 sites on Alabama’s streams, rivers, lakes and bays. Bill discussed recent developments, including the publishing of a new AWW brochure and new Water Chemistry Monitoring manual, as well as the launch of a new AWW website (at www.alabamawaterwatch.org).
Eric continued with an overview of volunteer water monitoring activities on the lake and its watershed. He stared by acknowledging the five citizen groups that actively monitor water quality on various segments of the lake, and on streams flowing into the lake. Active groups include SLEPC (15 active sites) primarily on the Ryan Creek arm of the lake, Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy (WCSLA, with 29 active sites) primarily on the Crooked, Rock, Brushy and Upper Sipsey Fork arms of the lake, Camp McDowell (3 active sites) on Clear Creek, Smith Lake Civic Association (SLCA) on the Lower Sipsey Fork arm of the lake, and the Cullman County Soil and Water Conservation District on Ryan, Crooked and Blevens creeks. The five monitoring groups have amassed an impressive database of over 2,400 water quality records, and actively monitor 65 sites on the lake and its tributaries, representing the best volunteer water monitoring coverage of any lake in the state!
Eric then presented a series of long-term graphs and the Add Trendline tool to illustrate the value of consistent monthly monitoring to detect and document whether water quality is stable, getting better or getting worse. The first graph, 54 months of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in the Upper Sipsey Fork arm of the lake, showed expected seasonal oscillations (highs in the winter, since DO is more soluble in cold water, and lows in the summer), with a stable trend of “healthy” DO levels at or above 6 parts per million (ppm), well above the 5 ppm minimum level mandated by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for sustaining aquatic life (see graph below). Five ppm (blue dashed line on graph) is the required minimum for streams, rivers and lakes that are use-classified by ADEM as Fish and Wildlife, for information on use classifications by basin, see www.adem.alabama.gov/programs/water/wquseclass.cnt).
The second graph, 47 months of DO in the Crooked Creek arm of the lake, showed low DO measured in 2007 followed by levels increasing to well above 5 ppm, an improving trend in water quality to “healthy” levels over the past three years.
The third graph, a very impressive 151-month trend in the Lower Sipsey Fork arm of the lake at Duncan Bridge showed another positive water quality trend in Secchi Disk Depth, indicating increasing water clarity at this site.
Eric showed two additional trend graphs of E. coli bacteria levels measured at stream monitoring sites on Crooked and Ryan creeks (76-month and 64-month tends respectively). In both cases, levels of harmful E. coli had declined to safe levels for the past couple of years.
Examination of cumulative water data of all sites in the Smith Lake Watershed collected over the past 12 months (a total of 373 records, see map below) indicated that Smith Lake had good water quality throughout the lake, with no low DOs, and only one “hit” of high E. coli on the entire lake, on Dismal Creek Embayment (two additional ‘hits’ occurred on a small tributary to Rock Creek in the upper watershed).
This whole-lake assessment was in line with the recent ranking of Smith as the “cleanest” of the state’s large reservoirs based on trophic state index (TSI) which is a scale of lake nutrient concentration, algal biomass and water clarity (Smith had the lowest TSI value, from ADEM’s 2010 Water Quality Report to Congress, available at www.adem.alabama.gov/programs/water/waterquality.cnt).
Mona followed with an update of the Rock Creek Watershed Management Project, which was funded by ADEM in March 2011. This 3-year ADEM-funded project is focused on reducing nonpoint source pollution flushing into Rock and Crooked creeks, with the goal of restoring the creeks to “healthy” water quality conditions. The two streams have been on ADEM’s polluted list because of excessive levels of pathogens, organic matter, low DO, and in the case of Crooked, excessive levels of ammonia. Recent project activities included participation in a GPS workshop for landowners, a Professional Logging Managers Field Day and the North Region Forestry Field Day.
Mona then showed results of a series of Smith Lake Watershed bacteria “blitzes” conducted by volunteer monitors over the past two years. Sampling during this multi-group effort involved as many as 20 monitors testing at 40+ lake and stream sites on five blitz events (February, April, July and October of 2010, and March and October of 2011). Bacteriological monitoring supplies for the blitzes have been provided by the Global Water Watch-Gulf of Mexico Alliance Project which is primarily funded by the U.S. E.P.A. Gulf of Mexico Program (for more information, see www.globalwaterwatch.org/GOMA/GOMAhome.aspx).
Cumulative results showed that the majority of the E. coli “hits” occurred in the Rock Creek Watershed (19 of 23 occurrences, or 83%, of levels greater than 200 E. coli per 100 mL of water, see map below). Mona announced that results of the most current blitz (conducted the previous day) would be available at the upcoming Rock Creek Stakeholders Meeting scheduled for December 6th at Addison Community Center.
Recently completed land cover/land use maps of the Rock Creek Watershed were presented, showing significant increases in forest lands at the expense of pasture/grasslands over the past 5 years. These shifts appear to coincide with shifts in economic conditions, particularly with increasing cost of inorganic fertilizers which translated to increasing value of poultry litter. These conditions have made it economical to haul litter out of the watershed, resulting in the conversion of pastures formerly used for litter application and cattle-grazing into forestlands.
Mona concluded by reporting an enthusiastic response to the Rock Creek Watershed Best Management Practices Sign-Up, saying that 15 agriculture producers had signed up for BMP project installations. These on-the-ground projects will be designed and installed to reduce the amount of pollution (fertilizers, chemicals, animal wasted, sediment) flushing off the landscape into the lake during rain events.
Bill concluded the program by enumerating several ways, in addition to water monitoring, that people can get involved in AWW and in stewardship of Smith Lake and its watershed. As illustrated on the new AWW brochure, he emphasized that putting water data into action is a major focus of AWW. He said that the impressive and growing body of AWW volunteer monitor data can be used to:
Bill closed by encouraging all to consider supporting AWW. This is particularly important in light of AWW’s recent loss of the ADEM 319 grant – the core funding for statewide training and support of volunteer water monitors. Eddie Hand, SLEPC President, came forward to present Bill with a generous donation, which the group vowed to contribute quarterly in support of AWW. Bill, along with the AWW staff extend our whole-hearted thanks to the generosity and personal commitment of the SLEPC membership to watershed stewardship!
Logan Martin Lake Protection Association (LMLPA) gathered in October 2011 for their annual meeting at the Pell City Civic Center on the Cropwell Embayment of Lake Logan Martin. LMLPA volunteer water monitor have been testing sites on the lake and its tributaries since 1996, amassing a database of over 2, 400 water quality records. Monitors have been trained and certified by Alabama Water Watch (AWW) in Water Chemistry Monitoring and Bacteriological Monitoring. The group currently monitors water chemistry at 15 sites and bacteria at 8 sites.
The group became interested in bacteriological monitoring from concerns about apparent sewage contamination entering the lake at multiple locations. The AWW Bacteriological Monitoring training would provide local lake residents the ability to test for E. coli, an indicator of the presence of fecal matter, and to quantify the level of contamination using the EPA-approved AWW procedure. Pell City had been cited by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for sewage overflows, which was a likely source of sewage entering the lake. The group initiated bacteriological monitoring downstream of suspected contamination source areas on Fishing Creek (site #40) and Blue Spring Branch (Sites #42 and 38) in the fall of 2006.
In 2009, AWW staffers presented bacteria trend graphs for these sites at the LMLPA annual meeting. At that time, trends at the sites showed increasing E. coli contamination to levels unhealthy for human contact (see graphs below). The trend graphs documented and quantified
The emergence of high levels of E. coli contamination during 2008 in the two streams, Fishing Creek and Blue Spring Branch, emptying into the lake. The LMLPA data confirmed what many lake residents had suspected. E. coli levels as high as 21,000 per 100 milliliters of water were measured in 2008 (levels above 235 per 100 milliliters of water, based on a single sample, have been deemed unsafe for swimming by ADEM). Isabella Trussell, LMLPA Water Monitor Coordinator, advised the public to avoid contact with contaminated waters in these areas (click here for news article in the Daily Home).
During the 2011 LMLPA meeting, updated bacteria graphs of 156 data records (about 50 records per site) were presented for the same sites (see graphs below). This updated data showed dramatic declines in
in E. coli levels at these sites relative to the unsafe levels reported in 2009. Declines in the bacteria levels coincided with needed repairs in sewer infrastructure. The LMLPA volunteer monitoring data quantified serious water quality problems, served to warn the public of health risks, and documented the resolution of the contamination problems via successful municipal repairs. Job well done!