Streamwatcher Summer 2014

The

StreamWatcher Summer 2014

StreamWatch Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program | A program of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association Protecting and restoring our watershed through citizen monitoring since 1992

STREAMWATCH: A PIECE OF THE NATIONAL VOLUNTEER MONITORING PUZZLE by Erin Stretz, StreamWatch Program Coordinator

Thanks to a grant we received from YSI, I was able to attend the 9th National Water Quality Monitoring Conference in Cincinnati this spring. This conference is a biennial national gathering for professionals and volunteers in this field. Hundreds of volunteer monitoring coordinators throughout the country were eligible to apply and 32 coordinators, including myself, were selected to receive funding for travel and conference registration that we may not have been able to afford otherwise. Conference attendance was comprised primarily of federal and state agency representatives; only about 10% of attendees came from nonprofit groups. The chance to represent the Stony Brook-Millstone Water- shed Association, the State of New Jersey, and the volunteer monitoring community at this conference was a unique personal and professional experience. It was a pleasure to meet and learn from hundreds of people who feel as pas- sionate about monitoring and improving water quality as I do. Many thanks to YSI for giving me this opportunity.

Members of the national volunteer water monitoring community gather together at the conference. Many topics and new citizen science gadgets were presented over the week-long conference. In one session, I learned that there are approximately 46,170 volunteers monitoring 14,610 stream, lake, and beach sites across the United States. In another, I discovered a lens adapter that can turn your smart phone into a microscope! I left the conference inspired by the work of my fellow water quality and data scientists and with new ideas about what we can accomplish together with the StreamWatch program. Add to this the construction of our new Watershed Environmental Center, and its state-of-the-art laboratory, and StreamWatch is surely headed for some big advances in the coming year.

No matter what upgrades we make to the program, however, none of it could happen without our amazing volunteers. Our StreamWatchers account for around 100 of the thousands of people across the country who are dedicated to con- ducting streamside chemistry, examining mayfly gills, wading through pages of data, and more — and it is undeniable that this program would not exist without you. Thank you for your hard work and stay tuned for the developments to come!

In this issue: Why do we calibrate our thermometers? Bacteria Monitoring Results Spring 2014 Biological Assessment Biological Monitoring Trends: Stony Brook Subwatershed, Lower Millstone River Subwatershed, Upper Millstone River Subwatershed 2014 VOLUNTEER AND MEMBER APPRECIATION PICNIC

As a well-deserved “thank you”, several of our Stream- Watchers came out to the Reserve to enjoy our annual Volunteer and Member Appreciation Picnic on June 6. It was a great opportunity to gather together to share a meal outside and enjoy some frisbee on the lawn, but more im- portantly, to assemble as an active community of citizen scientists. We also presented service awards to those volunteers who have reached 10 and 20 years of participation in the StreamWatch program, as well as all our youth StreamWatchers (see awardees below). 2014 STREAMWATCH VOLUNTEER MILESTONES Youth 5 Year 10 Year 20 Year Siddhesh Dabholkar Tony Beesley Jon Allen Loretta Chipin Jillian Farley Lorna Fletcher Marjorie Kaplan Kevin Gan Vivian Hu Claire Higham-Thomas Stewart Lindenberger Owen Hynes Barbara Moretti Lukas Magnusson Pat Scully Jeffrey Maslanka Sonja Michaluk Krishna Rangarajan Yash Singh Eric Wang Chris Zhang

WHAT’S BUGGING YOU? WHY DO WE CALIBRATE OUR THERMOMETERS? Once a year, our StreamWatch thermometers are taken to the NJDEP to be calibrated against a thermometer that is traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. Most thermometers do not report the true temperature and can be “off” by up to a degree or more. By comparing the temperature readings of our thermometers against a NIST thermometer, we can determine the correction factor that must be applied to our readings.

For instance, we know that StreamWatch thermometer #1 reads 0.1o C over the true temperature in 0-15o C conditions and 0.605o C over in 15.1- 30o C conditions. Thus, if temperature is measured at 12.5o C, Watershed staff corrects the value to 12.6o C on the data sheet.

The number written in permanent marker on the side of each Stream- Watch thermometer is used to identify the individual instruments and their specific temperature corrections. This is why it is imperative that our volunteers use their assigned thermometer (and why we recently updated the CATs data sheets to include the thermometer number).

Calibrating our thermometers every year allows StreamWatch temperature data to be accepted by the state and used for regulatory purposes. Your thermometer number can be found So, we’ll continue to wrangle up all of our thermometers each year so our written in permanent marker on the side. data can be used at the highest level possible! Have a question? Email StreamWatch Program Coordinator Erin Stretz at [email protected] to get an answer! The StreamWatcher — Summer 2014 2 HOW SAFE IS YOUR STREAM? MAY 2014 E. COLI MONITORING RESULTS The table to the right lists the StreamWatch bacteria monitoring sites and whether they met the state stand- AVERAGE # E. COLI COLONIES/100 ML WATER ard for E. coli on our sampling date in May. (Our Febru- SITE LOCATION MAY 5 ary sample date was cancelled due to heavy snow.) To meet the state standard for a single sample, meaning BD3 Beden Brook at Great Road 1,320 the bacteria levels are low enough for safe recreation in CL1 Carnegie Lake below dam on the Millstone River 110 the water, there should be less than 235 colonies per CL2 Central Carnegie Lake 660 100 milliliters of sample water. When a site does not HCB1 Heathcote Brook, at Red Roof Inn on New Road 130 meet the standard, it is usually just after a rainfall. It is recommended to stay out of waterways for 2-3 days HO2 Honey Brook Pond, on SBMWA property 650 after rainstorms. Only a trace amount of precipitation PR1 Pike Run, at Montgomery Park 140 fell on the two days prior to the May 5 sample. Howev- SB2 Stony Brook, at Province Line Road 720 er, more than half of the sites exceeded the state crite- SB4 Stony Brook, at Pennington-Rocky Hill Road 880 ria. Interestingly though, Pike Run did not exceed on this date despite being the site that most often has the = Exceeds State Standard of 235 colonies highest E. coli levels.

MONITORING PEDDIE LAKE FOR THE HIGHTSTOWN TRIATHLON Our summer sampling season has begun again at Peddie Lake. In preparation for the annual Hightstown Triathlon, the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association conducts regular monitoring of E. coli in the lake to ensure the health and safety of swimmers participating in practice swims throughout the summer.

Our current monitoring results for E. coli are shown below. The first practice swim, scheduled for May 3, was canceled due to high bacteria levels likely due to the heavy rainfall that occurred earlier that week. The swimmers were more successful on May 10 when the bacteria counts fell. Levels rose again to an extremely high value the following weekend, so the swim was canceled again on the 16th. What was different about that weekend however was that the May 15 sample was collected from an area upstream of the usual sampling location at the end of the dock. Bacteria levels at this location skyrocketed past any other result we have seen to date. It has since reduced slowly over the past few weeks as we’ve sampled both locations. Watershed staff and triathlon volunteers will continue to sample several sites around the lake in the coming weeks to keep an eye on this hot spot. AVERAGE # E. COLI COLONIES/100 ML WATER

DATE PEDDIE LAKE DOCK UPSTREAM OF DOCK 4/17/14 99.5 4/21/14 9.8 4/28/14 18.7 5/1/14 2,419.6 5/8/14 69.7 5/15/14 11,980 5/22/14 35.9 1,046.2 5/29/14 52.9 325.5 6/12/14 70.6 2014 Hightstown Triathlon practice swimmers prepare to dive in the lake 6/19/14 119.1

= Exceeds State Standard of 235 colonies The StreamWatcher — Summer 2014 3 HOW HEALTHY IS YOUR STREAM? SPRING 2014 BIOLOGICAL MONITORING RESULTS Biological monitoring helps us to understand the health of our streams. Aquatic benthic macroinvertebrates, organisms that live on the bottom of streams and lakes, serve as valuable indicators of water quality. Ma- croinvertebrate species (which include insect larvae, aquatic worms, snails, crayfish, and other small aquatic organisms) have different tolerance levels to pollution. For example, mayflies, stoneflies, and cad- disflies, belonging to the taxonomic orders of Ephemeroptera, Plecop- tera, and Trichoptera (EPT) respectively, have very little tolerance to pollution and will die off when introduced to a polluted environment. On the other hand, organisms with a high tolerance to pollution, like FEATURED MACROINVERTEBRATE: SCUD leeches, worms, and midge fly larvae, will continue to survive even in Order: Amphipoda, Family: Crangonyctidae Photo by Mike Higgins impaired conditions.

After our StreamWatch volunteers collect and identify their macroinvertebrate samples, there are many different ways to calculate the stream’s level of impairment. Various water quality rating systems use different combinations of measurements that may include the organisms’ average pollution tolerance values; the number of different taxonomic families in the sample; the number of families and individual organisms belonging to the EPT orders; and the percent dominance of one family.

StreamWatch BAT (Biological Action Team) sites have been assessed using the New Jersey Impairment Score (NJIS), a metric that has been used since the 1990’s, but we have just begun participating in a test of a new NJDEP metric, New Jersey’s High Gradient Macroinvertebrate Index (HGMI). This rating system, developed by NJDEP in 2007, was created to assess specifically NJ’s high-gradient habitat (rocky-bottom streams), as opposed to the coastal plain (muddy-bottom streams) and pinelands habitats in other areas of the state. Prior to the development of these habitat-specific criteria, all habitats were assessed with the same metric—sometimes falsely elevating high-gradient sites above other habitat types. Below are the results from the StreamWatch BAT’s spring 2014 sample, comparing the NJIS and HGMI metric scores. SITE LOCATION NJIS SCORE HGMI SCORE NJIS SCORE RATING BB1 Big Bear Brook, at Cranbury Rd. 18 14.56 > 24 Excellent BD3 Beden Brook, at Great Rd. 18 15.83 18 - 21 Good BD4 Beden Brook, at Aunt Molly Rd. 27 36.06 9 - 15 Fair BK1 Back Brook, at Bridgepoint Rd. 21 27.50 CB2 Cranbury Brook, at N. Main St. 9 13.07 0 - 6 Poor SB1 Stony Brook, at Rt. 206 15 26.35 HGMI SCORE RATING SB2 Stony Brook, at Province Line Rd. 21 23.33 > 63 Excellent SB4 Stony Brook, at Pennington-Rocky Hill Rd. 12 16.68 < 63 - 42 Good SB5 Stony Brook, near Mine Rd. Bridge 15 25.80 < 42 - 21 Fair SM1 Six Mile Run, near the canal 21 27.88 TM1 Ten Mile Run, near wing wall of bridge 21 31.12 < 21 Poor

This comparison of NJIS and HGMI scores clearly demonstrates the importance of selecting the most appropriate analy- sis tools for the site. It may be that the NJIS method has over-estimated the quality of our biological assessments. The HGMI method calculates each of our sites to be of fair quality or less. Even one site, BD4, that was measured to be of “excellent” quality with NJIS was called “fair” under HGMI criteria. We will continue to show both of these criteria at least once more before switching over completely to HGMI. The StreamWatcher — Summer 2014 4 HOW HEALTHY IS YOUR STREAM? STREAMWATCH BIOLOGICAL MONITORING TRENDS

All StreamWatch Biological Action Team (BAT) sites have been monitored since 2004, most since 1996 or 1997, so at least a decade of biological monitoring data exists for our 12 current sites. Historical trends since the inception of each site are shown graphically in the following pages. The New Jersey Impairment Score (NJIS) for individual samples as well as a trendline demonstrate whether the site has improved or declined over time. This data is shown on a back- drop with graduated color that shows where the NJIS falls on a scale that ranges from poor, fair, good, to excellent.

Sites are divided according to their location in one of three subwatersheds, including the Stony Brook (SB1, SB2, SB3, SB4, and SB5), the Lower Millstone River (BB1 and CB2), and the Upper Millstone River (BD3, BD4, BK1, SM1, and TM1). The three subwatersheds, as well as the locations of the current StreamWatch BAT sites, are shown in the map below.

NJIS scores range from 0-30. A non-impaired stream, scoring above 24, has a higher diversity of families, organisms with low tolerances to pollution (those generally belonging to EPT orders), and a low percent dominance of any one family, which is an indicator of diversity. A moderately impaired stream, scoring between 9-21, may be experiencing lower species diversity due to a lack of diverse habitat. The moderately impaired category has been subdivided to “good” (18-21) and “fair” (9-15). A severely impaired stream, scoring 6 or less, is generally dominated by few species with a high tolerance of pollution.

Continued on next page… The StreamWatcher — Summer 2014 5 StreamWatch Biological Monitoring Trends … Continued from previous page STONY BROOK SUBWATERSHED BIOLOGICAL TRENDS

Stony Brook Site 5 (SB5) 30

25 Stony Brook Site 5 (SB5) is located upstream of the Mine Road bridge near its 20 intersection with Stony Brook Road in 15 Hopewell Township. It is the furthest upstream site on the Stony Brook close to 10 the headwaters. Since 1996, the NJIS has 5 declined from an “excellent” to a “good” rating.