We’re excited to receive a $50,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP)! This funding will help us and our PIE-Rivers partners expand water quality monitoring across local rivers, streams, and lakes. The data we collect will be verified and used by MassDEP to protect and improve water quality under the Clean Water Act.
The grant will provide equipment and supplies for volunteers from the Ipswich River Watershed Association, Parker River Clean Water Association, and Chebacco Lake and Watershed Association. Together, we’ll monitor 56 river and stream sites and 5 lake and pond sites to track key water health indicators.
We’ll focus on dissolved oxygen and temperature, critical for aquatic life, and test for chlorides (from road salt), nitrogen, and phosphorus to understand how stormwater runoff affects water quality. To identify lakes and ponds at risk for harmful algal blooms, we’ll also measure chlorophyll-a, a marker of blue-green algae.
All data will be carefully reviewed and shared with MassDEP to support statewide watershed assessments—and we’ll share our findings with the public, too!