All-Volunteer ‘River Dipper’ program monitors health of local waterways

Once a month, Springfield resident Lucy Georgeff and her 5-year-old daughter Eva take an early morning trip to two spots along Valley Street Brook to scoop up water to be sent out for testing.

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All-Volunteer ‘River Dipper’ Program Monitors Health of Local Waterways By Aimee Caruso Valley News Staff Writer Saturday, September 17, 2016 Print SPRINGFIELD VT BLACK RIVER ACTION TEAM COLIFORM BACTERIA VALLEY STREET BROOK Springfield, Vt. — Once a month, Springfield resident Lucy Georgeff and her 5-year-old daughter Eva take an early morning trip to two spots along Valley Street Brook to scoop up water to be sent out for testing. The volunteers are veteran participants in the River Dipper program. Created by Springfield, Vt.-based nonprofit Black River Action Team, the program monitors the health of the river and selected tributaries, including Valley Street Brook, which until recently was plagued by sewer discharges. The bacteria levels in the brook had been “consistently off the charts” since BRAT started sampling the water in 2012, said Kelly Stettner, the organization’s founding director. But recently, following a sewer system upgrade by the town, those numbers plummeted. Seeing the levels fall was “awesome,” said Georgeff, who’d previously worn dishwashing gloves at one of the sites to prevent exposure to E. coli. Taking the gloves off “felt very ceremonious.” And seeing an immediate result from the work the town did “was neat,” Georgeff said in an email. “I wanted to thank them.” Three buildings along the brook had been overlooked when Springfield originally connected the other homes and businesses to the main sewer lines, said Stettner, who described the process in emails and a phone interview. “It was an oversight that got noticed and (thankfully) budgeted for and fixed in a timely manner.” Samples taken from the brook in May — the first since the upgrade, which included connecting the buildings to the sewer line — showed bacteria levels safe for swimming and fishing, although as Stettner noted, the brook has no real swimming access, “and the only boat that might fit in there would have to be a toy.” Except for a spike following a rainstorm, subsequent tests have found bacteria levels well below the safe limit, she said, “so we’re really quite pleased with the positive trend we’re seeing.” From May to September, volunteers take weekly samples for bacteria counts at two local swimming holes. Once a month, they sample 14 sites for bacteria and several other measures of river health, including turbidity, total nitrates and total phosphorus. Having lived near the Connecticut River for most of her life, Georgeff wanted to help Eva feel a connection to the riverways, too. A simple task she can do with her young daughter, water sampling fits their work and school schedules. And the volunteer gig offers special time for the two of them to be up early together and do “an important job that has a concrete meaning for her,” Georgeff said. “We swim in more upstream parts of the Black River, so she can understand wanting to make sure it is healthy,” she said. “It’s a neat way to learn about how the waterways are connected, too.” In addition to water sampling, BRAT sponsors river cleanups and educational events. For information about volunteering, contact Stettner at blackrivercleanup@yahoo.com or 802-738-0456.