WATER QUALITY
		Volunteers in DRWA's new lab Listen to a recent Field Notes interview on WFCR about our water quality program

The Deerfield River is one of the most pristine rivers in Massachusetts. Due to cool temperatures, high oxygen content, and neutral rather than acidic conditions, the river is home to a variety of aquatic life.

Despite ten dams and five waste water treatment plants on its river shores, the watershed is not densely populated and most of the land use is forests.

Because the river is clean and scenic, it is used heavily for recreation. DRWA has been documenting the water quality in the main stem and tributaries since 1990. See our slide show for an introduction to our program and for 1999-2000 results.

Currently we monitor the river for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and alkalinity in the spring (see 2001 results) and temperature and fecal coliform bacteria in the summer (check latest results).

For more information on water quality and on the parameters we chose, check again when this page is finished.

• April 22 (water chemistry)
• June 3 (bacteria)
• June 17 (bacteria)
• July 1 (bacteria)
• July 15 (bacteria)
• August 5 (bacteria)
• August 19 (bacteria)

DRWA monitors fecal coliform bacteria at popular recreational sites throughout the watershed. Fecal Coliforms are bacteria that live in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. They are not necessarily harmful themselves, but they may indicate the presence of viruses and pathogens that are harmful to humans (generally causing intestinal ailments). We report results in number of fecal coliform colonies per 100 milliliters.

The State Water Quality Standards for recreation are:

Because we only take one sample per site per collection, we compare our results to the right column in the table above

red line indicates upper limit for swimming standard

Some quick data interpretation:

Our first testing this year (June 3) occurred after a big storm and we found fecal coliforms at all sites except Zoar Gap. Most counts were within acceptable limits (below 400), but the North River above BBA in colrain and the confluence of the South River violated State Standards for swimming and fishing.

The June 17 collection shows how conditions change with weather: A storm moved through the watershed during sampling, so that early collectors took their samples a few minutes after it started raining, and the late collectors were definitely sampling the "first flush" of the storm in the river. Note the high reading at the Potholes, probably the most popular swimming hole in the watershed: this peak likely results from surafce runoff to the storm sewers in Shelburne Falls which empty into the river just upstream.

On July 1 we sampled 12 hours after a thunderstorm, and a few sites had high bacteria counts again. At his point it looks as if our marginal sites may be the North River above BBA and the South River confluence, while the cleanest spots are Zoar Gap and the Cold and Green Rivers.

Our incubator malfunctioned on July 15, "frying" our bacteria plates, so we can't report data for that date.

The August 5 collection followed some scattered thunderstorms in the evening of August 4. Those storms apparently did not constitute a "wet event" as the results all show low bacteria counts. Finally, the August 19 collection occurred during a dry spell and the fecal counts were accordingly low.

We can see that different weather patterns result in varying levels of bacteria throughout the watershed, pointing to the need to continue sampling until we have a respectable collection of data which will permit us to predict what size storm produces unacceptable levels of bacteria.

Local Contact: DRWA Water Quality Monitoring Program: Marie-Françoise Walk 413-774-7025
State Contact: EOEA Deerfield River Watershed Team Leader: Christine Duerring 413-773-7899
National Contact: EPA web site