Inland Water Monitoring

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• Stressor Identification and Causal Assessment Work

  Stressor identification involves defining and listing possible sources of pollution, evaluating existing data, designing a sampling program to bracket the sources if additional data are needed, characterizing the causes, and, finally, identifying the most probable cause.

• 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.

• 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 Diatom Community Monitoring Project

• Connecticut Healthy Waters Initiative

  For several decades, the DEEP Monitoring Group has been building multidisciplinary datasets that include water chemistry data, physical habitat assessments, and biological information. The primary purpose for these data is to support water quality assessments. In addition, through multiple partnerships, the Monitoring Group is using these data to improve our understanding of healthy waters in Connecticut

• River and Stream Water Monitoring

  DEEP has monitored rivers and streams for water quality since the 1970s. Current annual monitoring efforts include the collection of water chemistry, water temperature, macroinvertebrate community, fish community, periphyton community, and indicator bacteria data from locations throughout the State. This data collected by the Monitoring Program are used to assess the health of individual waterbodies. In addition, the data are used to support a variety of other projects, including evaluation of trends in Connecticut’s water quality in the state, study of the potential impacts of climate change on our waterbodies, and supporting nutrient and temperature criteria development.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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!

• Beach Monitoring

  The CT DEEP Water Monitoring and Assessment Unit conducts weekly bathing water sampling at 22 state-owned and managed swimming areas.

• Fish Tissue Contaminant Monitoring

  Monitoring of toxic contaminants in tissues of fish and invertebrates has been conducted by DEEP in partnership with the CT Department of Public Health (DPH) since the late 1970s. Efforts have historically included analysis of levels of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). More recent work has sought to study new contaminants of emerging concern, such as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS).

• Cold Water Stream Habitat Map

  Cold Water Stream Habitat Map

• Ambient Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring

  The DEEP Water Monitoring Group has used benthic macroinvertebrate communities to help characterize stream and river water quality since the mid-1970s. Benthic macroinvertebrates are animals without backbones, who inhabit the bottom of rivers and streams, as well as many other waterbody types. These organisms are very well studied and have a long history of use as indicators of water quality. Certain types, including mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies, can survive only in the cleanest water quality conditions. Other major groups of macroinvertebrates are true flies, beetles, worms, crustaceans, and dragonflies.

• 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.

• Stream Connectivity Monitoring