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Volunteer Water Monitoring Program Overview
CT DEEP encourages groups and individuals interested in helping to conserve and protect our water resources to become volunteer water monitors. The Volunteer Water Monitoring Program utilizes a three-tiered approach to volunteer water quality monitoring, which is also increasingly referred to as 'citizen science' or 'community science'. The three-tiered approach allows for participation by volunteers having a wide range of skills and interest levels.
The DEEP Water Monitoring Program conducts ambient monitoring and the related assessment of the State’s waters, including Connecticut's many lakes and ponds. In Connecticut, there are a total of 2,267 lakes and ponds greater than 10 acres in size. The Monitoring Program conducts annual monitoring on approximately 10-20 of these. The type and locations of monitoring during a given year is determined by a variety of factors including participation in regional and national studies as well as support requests from groups within DEEP.
The CT DEEP Water Monitoring and Assessment Unit conducts weekly bathing water sampling at 22 state-owned and managed swimming areas.
PFAS Surface Water and Fish Tissue Monitoring
Information on DEEP efforts to monitor PFAS in surface waters and fish tissue.
Water Quality Monitoring Program Overview
The DEEP Water Monitoring Group conducts annual water quality monitoring to evaluate the physical, chemical and biological condition of the State’s waters. Group staff collect a wide variety and large quantity of information each year, including water chemistry data, water temperature data, bacteria data, biological community data (fish, macroinvertebrates, diatoms) and tissue contaminant data.
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.
2014 Volunteer Water Monitoring Conference
The 2014 Volunteer Water Monitoring Conference was held on July 25, 2014 at Goodwin College in East Hartford, CT. The conference was the first such conference to be organized by the CT DEEP to celebrate volunteer water monitoring in Connecticut. More than 100 individuals attended representing individual volunteers (citizen scientists), watershed group leaders, municipal commissioners, college and university professors, state and federal scientists, students, and representatives from the environmental consulting industry. In total more than 40 volunteer monitoring groups were represented at the conference!
2019 CT Volunteer Water Monitoring Conference
The 2019 Volunteer Water Monitoring Conference was held on April 5, 2019 at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, CT. The conference was organized by the CT DEEP in collaboration with partners, and marked the 20 year anniversary of the DEEP Volunteer Water Monitoring Program. The event featured five concurrent oral presentation sessions and workshops as well as a student poster session. More than 100 volunteer water monitoring groups from across Connecticut were represented.
Phosphorus Reduction Strategy for Inland Non-tidal Waters
Phosphorus Reduction Strategy for Inland Non-tidal Waters