Water Quality Resources

IRWA’s RiverWatch Monitoring program collects water quality data at designated sites throughout the watershed.

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IRWA completed a study on dissolved oxygen levels in the Ipswich River that determined correlations with human and natural factors that affect DO concentration in the Ipswich mainstem. Five variables – increasing temperature, distance upstream from the mouth of the river, increasing depth, increasing previous-28-day-rainfall, and decreasing flow – were found to be significant in contributing to lower dissolved oxygen levels in the Ipswich River basin.

IRWA’s study How Animal Wastes Pollute Water investigated fecal coliform bacteria and its relationship to animal wastes in the Ipswich River in Ipswich and Hamilton.

In the summer and fall of 1997, a flow study to document the low-flow/no-flow conditions at Upper Basin and control locations was conducted.

Additional information on water quality in the Ipswich River is available from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection:

Draft Pathogen TMDL for the Ipswich River

Ipswich River Water Quality Assessment Report (2000)