Friends of Casco Bay (FOCB) recently convened a group of stormwater researchers to brainstorm the feasibility of using volunteers as “citizen scientists” to collect stormwater samples. Water quality monitoring experts from Wisconsin, Alabama, Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts came to Maine at FOCB’s invitation on Aug. 3 to discuss how existing sampling protocols might be modified for use by volunteers.
Gathering data on polluted runoff is critical, because stormwater runoff accounts for over two-thirds of the water pollution in the nation’s lakes, rivers and coastal waters. Because of the unpredictability of storm events and the presence of potentially dangerous materials in stormwater runoff, volunteers are rarely used to collect this data. The goal of Friends of Casco Bay is to develop a monitoring plan that will receive federal approval, ensuring that the data volunteers collect is usable by regulators and researchers. Friends of Casco Bay’s Citizen Stewards Program has trained more than 500 volunteers to do baseline water quality monitoring on the health of Casco Bay.
Many groups around the country, including River Network, Waterkeeper Alliance and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are eager to learn how volunteers could be utilized to effectively and inexpensively collect scientifically credible data on the pollutants in stormwater. Geoff Dates, River Watch Program Director, came from Woodstock, Vermont, “to have an opportunity to get ahead of what will be happening across the country.”
The project is funded by Maine Shore Stewards of the Maine State Planning Office, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Maine Community Foundation, the Nine Wicket Foundation, US EPA, and The Ocean Conservancy.
For more information contact Mary M. Cerullo, Associate Director, Friends of Casco Bay, (207) 799-8574, mcerullo@cascobay.org (FOCB news release)