BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE STREAM MONITORING

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BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE STREAM MONITORING

• Water Steward Program

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Why Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring?

• One way to accomplish the goals set forth in our
  associations mission statement.
• To assess the current water quality.
• To get a better sense of the impact of land use
  practices on the Pohatcong Creek.
• To share the collected data with the communities
  as a tool for planning/land use issues.

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Pohatcong Creek Watershed Boundary

• The entire watershed is within Warren County.
• The creek is approximately 20 miles in length.
• Flows through 7 municipalities on its way to the
  Delaware River.
• Approximately 58 square milesof land comprises
  the watershed.

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Initiating the Monitoring Program

• Develop a Quality Assurance/Quality Control
  QA/QC document
• Find and train a group of Water Stewards
• Survey and choose monitoring sites along the
  length of the creek.
• Establish a 3 year baseline of data.

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The QA/QC

• Drives the program.
• It ensures that sampling is unified consistent,
  and replicable.
• It defines the equipment, sampling intervals,
  procedures, and analysis.
• Sampling protocol is based on the U.S. EPA Rapid
  Bioassessment Protocol III EPA/440/4-89/001 May
  1989.

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The Water Steward

• A group of 10 people established the water
  steward pool.
• Each member completed the course Volunteer
  Monitoring of Streams Rivers - May, 1999.
• The group was divided into 4 teams to cover the
  30 sites selected along the creek.

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Field Work

• Letter of introduction
• Rapid Bioassessment Protocol followed during
  site work.
• Benthic macroinvertebrate sample is collected.
• In addition, stream width, water appearance,
  odor, temperature, and flow velocity are
  recorded.
• The site is sketched and a habitat assessment is
  performed.

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Stream Assessment Monitoring System SAMS

• Developed and written by one of the members of
  our watershed association.
• GIS database management system to record and
  display the results of the stream monitoring
  program.
• Available in two formats - a read only or a
  read/write version.

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SAMS Features

• Display detailed analysis of sampling data for
  each site.
• Calculate the N.J. Impairment Score versus 6
  other features.
• View site photographs.

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SAMS Features (cont.)

• Interactive identification utility of benthic
  macroinvertebrates which are found in our samples.

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SAMS Features (cont.)

• Virtual tours of Stream Monitoring, the
  Watershed, or Historical Areas

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PCWA Web Site

• www.pcwa.org
• Overview of our organization and goals.
• The sights sounds of the watershed can be
  viewed.
• Also, provides a venue for the transfer of data
  between the field and SAMS updating.