Program Development Presented by: Kevin Jayne

1. Indiana Watershed Leadership AcademyDecision Making and Location Mapping for Volunteer Water Quality Testing Efforts Program Development Presented by: Kevin Jayne

2. The Mission • Develop a Water Quality Monitoring Program for the Muscatatuck Watershed. • Program is intended to be utilized for baseline data. • Documentation and testing will be completed by volunteers.

3. Decision Process • A small committee was developed by the Friends of the Muscatatuck River Society to determine: • How we would test our water quality? • How often to test the water quality? • Where the tests would occur? • How to document the results? • Establish credibility of the results.

4. Volunteer Training • Volunteers will be trained by Hoosier Riverwatch and the Muscatatuck Testing Program will follow program guidelines of the Hoosier Riverwatch Program. • This Program will be sponsored by the Friends of the Muscatatuck River Society and data will be submitted to Hoosier Riverwatch.

5. Testing • The Hoosier Riverwatch Program has three primary assessments: • Habitat Assessment • Chemical Assessment • Biological Assessment

6. Habitat Assessment • CQHEI (Citizens Quality Habitat Evaluation Index) • Utilizes land use, substrate, flow rate, depth, shape, riparian vegetation and erosion to provide a measure of stream habitat that effects fish and other aquatic life. • Hoosier Riverwatch trains volunteers on these measurations, see Chapter 3 of there training manual.

7. Chemical Assessment • The Hoosier Riverwatch Program allows eight parameters be tested: • Dissolved oxygen • E.coli • Nitrate • Total or orthophosphate • Turbidity • pH • Biochemical Oxygen demand • And Temperature Change.

8. Chemical Assessment • The results of these tests are combined and weighted to determine a value on the Water Quality Index. • More information can be found regarding these tests in Chapter 4 of the Hoosier Riverwatch Training Manual. The Riverwatch training manual can be downloaded at http://www.in.gov/dnr/riverwatch/monitoring/

9. Biological Assessment • Macroinvertebrate Testing: • Macroinvertebrates are animals that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye and live part of their lives in or on the bottom of a body of water. Macroinvertebrates have no backbone and species include mayflies, stoneflies, beetles, snails, worms and freshwater clams, mussels and crayfish. • Biological Assessment is based on the fact that different species tolerate pollution in different ways. Volunteers document the different species collected as well s the diversity of the community.

10. Biological Assessment • Good diversity in a stream is a strong indicator of a healthy stretch of stream. • The program will include these tests in the spring and fall, when the climate is best suited for the work.

11. Testing Format • Testing by Volunteers will occur at a minimum once per quarter when conditions for testing are favorable. • Investigative sampling may be done if there is a location suspect to a source of pollution in order to pinpoint contamination. • Qualified Labs will be asked to test in the watershed at least once per year when conditions for testing is favorable. • Sites are determined by Program Manager.

12. Testing Format • The Program Manager will be responsible for creating a form in which all test results are documented. These results will be submitted to the Program Manager who will be responsible for maintaining a database. This data will create a baseline to assist the FMRS in decision making as we try to improve water quality. When possible, results will be shared with Hoosier Riverwatch per their guidelines.

13. Testing Locations • There are several ways to determine a location for water quality testing: • Land use can impact water quality, you may want to test a stream near cropland, grazing land, forestry, sewage treatment plants, new construction, Industrial discharge, golf courses, septic systems and in marinas. • Use of the water could also steer your testing as many rivers and lakes are utilized in drinking water systems and some storm water drains also flow into our streams.

14. Testing Locations • For Macroinvertebrate Sampling, there are three recommended types of site: • Study sites are sites that are selected to answer a specific question (effects of land or water use, improvement after restoration work or effectiveness of BMP’s, etc.) • Reference Sites are sites selected to reflect best available conditions present within a specific stream, watershed, basin or ecoregion. There are ideal reference sites and realistic reference sites. Realistic Reference sites have some level of human effect. • Randomly Selected Sites are chosen regardless of level of human disturbance. Random sites provides for unbiased assessment of the range of conditions of a study.

15. Testing Locations • For our group, we have chosen to utilize random site selection based on ease of access and landowner permissions. Many of our sites are near fords or bridges for easy access. • The next few slides are some locations we plan to test beginning this fall. More locations will be added as the program grows.

16. Vernon Commons Park

17. Sullivan’s Ford

18. Tea Creek at 600S

19. Coffee Creek 850S to 950S

20. Bibliography • Hoosier Riverwatch http://www.in.gov/dnr/riverwatch/monitoring/ • USDA National Facilitation of CSREES Volunteer Monitoring Efforts Website. Fact Sheets III and IV June 2003 http://www.usawaterquality.org/volunteer/ • Estuary-Net Project: Water Quality Monitoring http://inlet.geol.sc.edu/wqmhp.html • Stream Macroinvertebrate Protocol: http://www.cbr.washington.edu/salmonweb/oregon/macro.html