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| The
Watershed Council Office is at 27 Sims Avenue Providence, RI 02909 (next to The Steel Yard) |
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Tel:
401.861.9046
Fax: 401.861.9038 |
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If you have questions about the activities of the Council please contact our Executive Director, Alicia Lehrer |
 2008 Water
Quality Monitoring Data |
| Monitoring Sites |
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| Dissolved Oxygen and Water Temperature | |
| Bacterial Monitoring | |
| Collection Notes | |
| Monitoring Sites |
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Starting in 2008 the Watershed Council is sponsoring water quality monitoring at three sites on the river. The first site is at Cricket Park in Greystone, on the Johnston - North Providence boundary, where we started monitoring in 2005. In 2008 we shifted from collecting our samples below the dam to collecting our samples above the dam so be careful comparing data for this site from 2008 with data for this site from previous years. The second site is just above the Rising Sun Dam, which is just upstream from Donigian Park, where we started monitoring in 2003. The third site is at Waterplace Park in downtown Providence, where we started monitoring in 2008. The water quality of many of the lakes and ponds in the watershed is also being monitored under the URI Watershed Watch program. The data for these sites are available on the Watershed Watch web site. |
| Dissolved
Oxygen and Temperature |
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Dissolved oxygen is important to the health of animals that live in the river because they need air to breath too. If the dissolved oxygen drops below 3 mg/L aquatic animals cannot survive. Between 3 and 5 mg/L it is hard for organisms to function, and above 5 is good. Oxygen levels are generally higher in the spring when the water is cold, because cold water can hold more oxygen. For more information visit the URI Watershed Watch web site and, in particular, read this PDF document on dissolved oxygen (about PDF format). To run the test, two samples are collected and two tests are run on each sample. The four results are averaged to get the final value. The test used is the modified Winkler titration test.
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| Bacteria |
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The samples for pH, alkalinity, nutrients, and bacteria testing are collected once a month and taken to URI for testing. The bacteria results are generally available within a few weeks and are posted on this web site when they become available. The other results are generally not available until the winter or spring. These results can be found on the Watershed Watch web site. In 2006 Watershed Watch began testing for the bacteria group enterococci, instead of fecal coliforms. This change was made because the US EPA identified enterococci as a better indicator of the risk of contacting gastrointestinal disorders as a result of coming into contact with the water than fecal coliforms. As a result of this finding, RI DEM and RI Department of Health are also switching to using enterococci as their standard for recreational contact (swimming). The Rhode Island standard for freshwater used for recreation is 61 enterococci (count per 100 ml). For more information visit the URI Watershed Watch web site and, in particular, read this PDF document on bacterial monitoring (about PDF format).
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