Inland Water Monitoring

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• Water Monitoring Group Reports and Publications

  This page provides a list of reports and publications produced by the Water Monitoring Group. The Water Monitoring Program collects and interprets physical, chemical, and biological data from State waters. One of the major functions of this program is to support designated use assessments, as required under the Federal Clean Water Act, and this is communicated through the Integrated Water Quality Report. Another key role is to provide summary information of important program elements for use by DEEP and the public.

• PFAS Surface Water and Fish Tissue Monitoring

  Information on DEEP efforts to monitor PFAS in surface waters and fish tissue.

• Water Temperature Monitoring Project

  Water temperature is very important to aquatic organisms as it can drive chemical reactions and physiological activity. In addition, water temperature is an important factor in determining which species of aquatic organisms, such as fish, are able to live in a particular section of river or stream. The Water Monitoring Group routinely monitors water temperature at wadeable river and stream locations across Connecticut. Data are collected to complement routine and probabilistic ambient biological monitoring data, to identify high quality watersheds as part of the Group’s Healthy Watersheds Initiative, and to support evaluation of temporal trends, quantification of natural variability, and testing of hypotheses and predictive models related to climate change and water resource management.

• Ambient Fish Community Monitoring

  Fish are an important component of aquatic life in rivers and streams in Connecticut. The DEEP Water Monitoring group therefore uses fish as one of three biological communities to evaluate the health of waterbodies in Connecticut. (The other two biological communities include benthic macroinvertebrates and diatoms.) Fish have the ability to move within a reach to find better water quality, but they can only do so if there is adequate water present and no barriers to their movement such as dams. Fish are therefore good ‘indicators’ of problems related to water quantity and habitat connectivity. Fish are more sensitive to changes in the amount of water in a stream than other biological communities such as benthic macroinvertebrates, and a fish community with very limited fish can often be a signal of flow-related water quality impairments.

• Riffle Bioassessment by Volunteers (RBV) Program

  The Riffle Bioassessment by Volunteers program (RBV) is a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program coordinated by the CT DEEP Bureau of Water Protection & Land Reuse. Each fall RBV volunteers participate in a ‘treasure hunt’ to find Connecticut’s healthiest streams. To accomplish this, RBV volunteers are trained to collect ‘macroinvertebrates,’ or ‘river bugs' from their local rivers and streams. Depending on the types of macroinvertebrates that volunteers find in a stream, the CT DEEP can assess it as a healthy stream.

• Connecticut Lake Watch (Volunteer Lake Monitoring)

  Connecticut Lake Watch is a community-based science project of the DEEP Volunteer Water Monitoring Program. Volunteers are trained to monitor the water quality of local lakes and ponds across Connecticut.