| “The problem was difficult to understand because agencies had limited time and money for sampling, especially on short notice when storm events created dramatically different results.” |
|
| Susan Wood, Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve |
|
An elite group of volunteers quickly mobilizes during heavy rain events along the Samish River in Washington State to collect important water quality data. Information provided by the volunteers helps coastal officials make decisions about commercial shellfish harvesting and brings attention to water quality concerns in the area.
“There is a fecal coliform problem in the Samish River,” says Susan Wood, estuary educator for the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. “The problem was difficult to understand because agencies had limited time and money for sampling, especially on short notice when storm events created dramatically different results.”
The Storm Team grew out of Stream Team, an existing Padilla Bay Reserve program where volunteers measure fecal coliform along the Samish every four weeks. During a routine measurement after a heavy rain, volunteers got unusually high numbers.
“They got very energized and wanted to know where it was coming from,” Wood recalls. They decided they would expand from eight locations along the river to twenty sites to try to narrow down the sources of pollution.
This new Storm Team quickly began to mobilize whenever rain events created the need, even on Thanksgiving Day one year, Wood says. The data the team collected helped state health department officials decide when to open or close shellfish harvesting and helped identify some possible sources of pollution.
It also helped bring attention to the problem. Two years after beginning the program, the state provided a grant to the county to tackle the issue.
With dedicated resources to address the problem, instead of disbanding, the Storm Team turned its attention to another problem watershed that did not yet have state resources. This year, the volunteers turned their attention back to the Samish, where they are investigating an area that is not sampled by the county.
“They work very closely with the county water quality people,” Wood says. “They go out and sample when the county officials can’t.”
To mobilize quickly, one of the volunteers monitors rainfall and sends out an email calling the group of eight into action. Wood supervises their use of Padilla Bay’s volunteer lab, where fecal coliform tests are run.
“We check the data and maintain the equipment and make sure they have the supplies they need,” Wood says. The reserve provides 10 to 12 hours of annual training for the Stream Team volunteers, and reserve staff members go out with the volunteers on their first sample every year.
“This is a wonderful group,” Wood says. “They’ve really taken the initiative to make this work. They understand the drainage of the watershed very well and are out there investigating.”
She adds, “Just having that many people out in the watershed that are aware of what’s going on has been really helpful. It’s really focused attention on the problem.”
For more information on the Padilla Bay Reserve’s volunteer Storm Team, contact Susan Wood at (360) 428-1066 or swood@padillabay.gov.
