Through the Hoosier Riverwatch program, volunteer water monitors get their feet wet (literally) and find out more about the quality of streams and rivers in their communities.

Volunteers learn to look at three different parameters to analyze water quality:

• • Habitat Assessment. The condition of the substrate and the land adjacent to the stream channel is critical to the health of the stream. Volunteers look at land use, substrate, flow rate, depth, shape, riparian vegetation, and erosion to assess the stream's habitat.
• • Chemical Assessment. Eight parameters are tested: dissolved oxygen, E.coli, nitrate, total or orthophosphate, turbidity, pH, biochemical oxygen demand, and temperature change. The results of these tests are combined and weighted to determine a Water Quality Index value.
• • Biological Assessment. Benthic macroinvertebrates are animals that are big enough (macro) to be seen with the naked eye. They lack backbones (invertebrate) and live at least part of their lives in or on the bottom (benthos) of a body of water. These critters include aquatic insects (such as mayflies, damselflies, and beetles), snails, worms, freshwater clams and mussels, and crayfish. Different species tolerate pollution in different ways. Volunteers analyze the types of macroinvertebrates collected as well as the diversity of the community to help understand the health of the stream.

To get an accurate picture of a stream's water quality, volunteers need to monitor regularly over a period of years.

To find out more or sign up for the next training, contact Nancy Brown at the Elkhart County Soil and Water Conservation District (574-533-3630 ext. 3).