Stream Monitoring
The St. Louis River Alliance has been organizing volunteers to test the water quality of streams in the St. Louis River Watershed since 2008. In 2010, the SLRA expanded its monitoring reach to streams along the North Shore. This project utilized two part-time Stream Monitoring employees who were in charge of data collection and management. These monitoring projects were funded by Minnesota Legislature through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) as part of the Clean Water Act for Surface Water Assessment Grant funding.
At all streams/rivers we sampled for the following:
Dissolved Oxygen – the amount of diatomic oxygen, or gaseous oxygen (O2), dissolved in the water.
Specific Conductance – the water’s ability to conduct electricity. This measures the water’s ionic activity and content.
Turbidity – measures the cloudiness of the water caused by suspended solids.
pH – this measures the acidity or basicity or the water.
Temperature – a fairly obvious measurement, but also very important to a stream or river’s well being.
Transparency – measured by using a transparency tube. The greater the transparency reading in centimeters, the clearer the water.
Water samples were taken to a certified laboratory and tested for the following parameters:
E. Coli Bacteria
Total Phosphorus
Ortho-Phosphorus
Ammonia Nitrogen
Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen
Nitrate + Nitrite Nitrogen
Total Suspended Solids
Chloride
If you are interested in learning more about these parameters, please visit http://www.lakesuperiorstreams.org.
The SLRA compiled field data and lab results and sent all information to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for processing. This data is then housed on the Environmental Data Access (EDA) System for Surface Water.
