Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is currently recruiting volunteers to measure water clarity in lakes and numerous streams across Morrison County. This is the perfect opportunity for families and retirees to get outside and assist in protecting their state’s natural resources.
Volunteers conduct a simple water clarity test in a body of water twice a month from April through September. MPCA provides all the equipment and training for free. No experience needed.
Waverly Reibel, Volunteer Water Program Coordinator, said: “The training is online and only takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The Platte River and the Swan River have a lot of stream sites that need volunteers. MPCA has site maps that show what sites are available that need a volunteer. A few lakes in Morrison County need volunteers as well but for lake monitoring you do need a boat, kayak or canoe. With stream monitoring, you do not.”
“As a volunteer, you will be measuring water clarity or water transparency which is how much light is penetrating into the water body for both lakes and streams. Water clarity is a really quick and easy test you can do. It can signify how much algae or sediment is in the water. If there is too much algae or sediment, that can impact fish, plant, and insect communities. If not enough sunlight gets down to the plants that grow on the bottom of streambeds or lakes, because of low water clarity, then the plants won’t grow as well and that can be bad for the fish and insects that live in the water,” said Reibel.
Reibel compared taking water clarity of a water body to taking blood pressure in a human body. It’s a quick simple test that gives you a holistic view of what’s going on in the body.
The MPCA uses the data to help determine whether lakes and streams are meeting water quality standards, which are designed to protect aquatic life and recreational activities (like fishing and swimming). Volunteers are important because in some cases, the information gathered by volunteers is the only monitoring done on a particular lake or stream.
The health of a water body is determined by the land use around it (such as by farms and construction, for example). To protect the quality of water around you, Reibel suggested: use less fertilizer on your lawns as that contributes to runoff which creates algae in the water; if you have lakefront property, keep your shoreline natural instead of cutting the grass all the way to the edge; keep the grass longer (mow less) and keep the shoreline more natural. Consider planting wildflowers as a buffer to catch the run-off and the pollutants from pavement and fertilizer. Phosphorus and nitrates in fertilizer enter the water and cause algae to bloom on lakes.
To measure the water clarity at a stream site, volunteers take a bucket to collect the water and use the water to fill up a Secchi tube which measures the water clarity. At a lake site, volunteers use a big Secchi disc off the side of a boat or canoe to measure the water clarity.
The MPCA provides volunteers data sheets to record the Secchi readings, water color, how high the stream is that day, etc. The MPCA uses the volunteer collected data to detect trends in water clarity over time which can indicate changes in a lake or stream and to assess the health of the water bodies by comparing the collected data to state water quality standards.
To sign up, people can go directly to the MPCA website to look up available sites near them at: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/get-engaged/find-a-site-and-sign-up
Lauren Lewandowski, Communications Specialist at MPCA, said water monitoring is one of her favorite programs that she supports. She is entering her third summer as a volunteer water monitor herself. She finds it gives her a great excuse to get outside and it connects her to her community. She takes a lot of pride in something that only takes five to ten minutes a day to do. “It’s a great citizen’s science experiment,” said Lewandowski.
Since the University of Minnesota launched the Volunteer Water Monitoring Program in 1973, it has gone on to become the second oldest, and still active, volunteer water monitoring program in the nation. Transferred to the MPCA in 1978, it has since empowered Minnesotans to support the health of their own local waterways.
Local News
Comments / 0