BRAT to test Black River this summer

Volunteers from the Black River Action Team will be out on the Black River this summer taking samples to make sure the river is safe for swimming and tubing.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140527/THISJUSTIN/705269935

Published May 26, 2014 in the Rutland Herald BRAT to test Black River this summer By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Volunteers from the Black River Action Team will be out on the Black River this summer taking samples to make sure the river is safe for swimming and tubing. Kelly Stettner, the director of the volunteer organization, said a new group of volunteers would undergo training Friday for the weekly testing at 11 different sites in Springfield. Stettner said that more people had come forward to participate in the project, which helped the Springfield woman earn a statewide environmental award given by Green Mountain Power. Stettner said that each site has five different sample bottles filled, and there is a different protocol for filling each bottle. “I’m going to the training tonight to be a refresher,” she said. She said the 11 sites would be tested for potential pollutants and chemicals such as phosphorus and nitrogen, bacteria and turbidity. Friday was Water Quality Day, established by the Green Mountain Water Environment Association to help focus public attention on the work done at wastewater treatment facilities around the state. Stettner said volunteers will collect samples the last Wednesday of each month, May through September, along the Black River and two smaller tributary streams in North Springfield and downtown Springfield. Samples will be analyzed at the state’s water quality lab in Burlington and also at Endyne Labs in Lebanon, N.H., which has volunteered to do the E. coli tests for free all summer long, a savings of more than $1,300, she said. BRAT will have to pay for the courier service to deliver the samples to the labs, Stettner said. The different locations that are being tested include a site on Perley Gordon Road, about two miles upstream from the Connecticut River, and both above and below the outfall pipe from the Springfield Wastewater Treatment Plant on Clinton Street. Samples are also being taken at Grout Park, which is located near the Springfield Community Center, and Mile Brook, which is in downtown Springfield, and runs underneath the Citizens Bank parking lot. Other sites include the Riverside Middle School at the boat launch area, and Spoonerville Brook and Great Brook, both in North Springfield. She said those sites started being tested in anticipation of the biomass plant being built in North Springfield Industrial Park, but would continue to be tested despite the fact the biomass project was rejected by the Public Service Board. “They are both healthy, good-looking streams,” Stettner said. She said the local testing effort had been greatly helped by Bill Manner of North Springfield, a retired biologist, who had helped set up the testing protocol. “He’s my water quality guru,” she said. She said the two swimming holes, at Buttermilk Falls in Ludlow and Greven Field in Proctorsville, will have bacteria results posted on-site and all bacteria results will be entered at a website hosted by the Connecticut River Watershed Council at http://connecticutriver.us/site/content/sites-list. Stettner said the group doesn’t have a place to post the chemical results yet, but she would be willing to share the results. “I am trying to get an interactive map-based website up and running, to post photos and data for each site. It is taking a while, but it’s in the works,” she said.