Around South County: Volunteers take Watershed Snapshot

Sam Faddis gathers his water sample from a tributary to Beards Creek in Edgewater as part of the Watershed Snapshot event sponsored by the South River and West/Rhode River riverkeepers.

By Mitchelle Stephenson for the Capital

Published 04/30/09

Each year the South River and the West/Rhode River Riverkeepers recruit several dozen people to take a look at the state of our local waterways. Diana Muller is the Riverkeeper for the South River and Chris Trumbauer is the Riverkeeper for the West/Rhode River.

They call it the Watershed Snapshot, when volunteers measure and record details on water conditions at a variety of locations. Each volunteer collects the same set of data at the same time. The snapshot event happened last Saturday morning at 50 locations in the South River watershed and a dozen locations in the West/Rhode River watershed. The field locations were both tidal and nontidal.

The volunteers all took training classes, led by Diana, where they received instruction on scientific collection methods.

First, she handed out white one-gallon buckets with smaller buckets inside along with testing bottles, materials, maps and instructions. Diana gave the volunteers step-by-step instructions for collecting the water, measuring dissolved oxygen, pH levels, temperature and more. As she went through each step in the process, she explained why each of the information points is important to determining the health of the rivers.

For example, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water - which is measured in the field in a test tube with a dissolvable pill - can determine whether or not fish can live in the water. Low levels of dissolved oxygen have been responsible for some of the large fish kills in our area in the recent past.

She also asked the volunteers to give their assessment of other factors that aren't measured with the water sample. They are asked to look at the conditions at the site: is there a lot of pollution on the ground or in the water? Is there an odor? What is the land use in the surrounding area - industry, agriculture, residential?

They're asked to look for evidence of wildlife in the area, as well as wind and outside weather conditions.

Many of the volunteers are returning from previous year snapshot events. Diana said that about 75 percent of volunteers will return next year.

"The more information we have about the health of the river, the more we can argue for what's working and what's not." Chris Reinert said. Chris was one of the volunteers testing Church Creek in the Wilelenor neighborhood in Edgewater. On Saturday morning, Sam Faddis arrived in the Withernsea community in Edgewater to test the water of a stream that feeds into Beards Creek - a tributary to the South River.

Sam got out his bucket and hiked down through the poison ivy to get to trickling stream of clear water. Sam reported raccoon tracks and a slick of oil on the water's surface. There was no trash.

The results of the data collected were inconclusive, all of the results will be available at a later date. However, the dissolved oxygen was in the normal range, as was the pH level. The two most important samples he collected - bacteria and nutrients - went on ice to be tested later at the laboratory at Anne Arundel Community College.

Still, when he finished with his assignment and took his bucket to be dropped off with Diana at the drop site, he thought the effort was worth it. "It was great. I encourage everyone to come out and do this," Sam said.

Diana said that many of her volunteers are also riverwatchers, people who volunteer to take regular samples of the water near their homes. Bev MacWilliams is one such river watcher. She is taking two samples, first sampling the stormwater runoff from an outfall or culvert flowing from a pipe and then testing the water in the river about 50 feet away to see the similarities and changes in water quality.

The sampling and the snapshot have been ongoing efforts for the South River Federation. While Diana has an army of volunteers helping her to collect the data, she isn't optimistic that the results will show improvements over last year. She's recently been called to area outfalls to observe pollution and runoff problems that have troubled her.

The results of the snapshot will be revealed at 7 p.m. June 9 at Edgewater Elementary School. For more information on the Riverkeeper's work, visit www.southriverfederation.net and www.westrhoderiverkeeper.org.

The Davidsonville Athletic Association is selling roses and azaleas to raise money to beautify and maintain their parks and fields. Three gallon roses are selling for $20 and three gallon Encore Azaleas are selling for $25. Order online at www.daagators.org and pick-up May 16 at Davidsonville Park.

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