Lake & Stream Monitoring Procedures

This explains what the Water Quality Team does, how easy it is to accomplish, while requiring just a bit of time. It is important we monitor the streams because the brooks entering the lake are the most likely places to catch any problems that may occur. Please consider joining us.
If there are any questions please don't hesitate to contact either Al Huefner or Ernie Benoit.

Al Huefner
82 Lakeside Ave
Webster, Ma 01570
(H) 1-508-275-9359
(C) 1-847-971-8190
email: HuefnerAl@aol.com

Ernie Benoit
86 Point Breeze Road
Webster, MA 01570
508-943-8804 Home
774-230-3138 Cell
email: ernieb@charter.net

To help answer questions for anyone who in interested in joining, we have prepared the brief summary below of what the activities are, how long it takes, and where we meet. We do two water quality monitoring activities:

Streams and LakeStreams Monitoring

Stream Testing - We meet at 9:45 at the far end of the Lodge Restaurant parking lot on Route 16 heading east toward Douglas. The Lodge is before you get to Indian Ranch. We check our gear and then go to the location in one or two vehicles. At the testing locations, the activities are as follows:

1. Fill out the observation sheet of visual sightings. This is a check the appropriate boxes activity using a clip board

2. Fill water sample bottles for later analysis by the Colorimeter analysis team for Nitrate and Phosphorus

3. Record sensor readings using the electronic instrument call the Troll 9500 made by In-Situ Corp.

4. Record water level readings for the staff gauges located at some sites

5. Record wind speed, air temp, and direction information using handheld instrument.We do this at 4-6 Streams locations. The total time is about 1.5-2 hr to complete all sites. All locations are near roads.

In the spring, we do take boots along in case we need them.

Lake Monitoring - The lake monitoring is a different process. We test at the deepest spot in each of the 3 ponds. We go out by boat and use a GPS instrument to position over the deep spot where we then anchor the boat. We then perform the following:

1. Fill out observation sheets of visual sightings. This is a check the appropriate box activity using a clip board.

2. Fill water sample bottles for later Nitrate, Phosphorus, and Chlorophyll-a by Colorimeter/External Lab.

3. Record sensor readings using the Troll at increments of 2 ft in depth and write down temps at each depth looking for the thermo cline(the thermal layer)

4. Use the Van Dorn sampler to capture water samples just below the thermo cline and near the bottom for Phosphorus testing.

5. Using the Secchi disk and aqua scope, perform clarity depth test.

6. Record wind speed, air temp, and direction information using handheld instrument. No training is required.

You will learn by doing the tasks guided by an experienced person each step of the way. Just come to have fun. For lake testing, we use Ray and Jeannie Travis’s boat and we leave from their house located at the far end of Mark Ave (last house on the right) at 10:45 am on the test dates. Total time runs between 2-2.5 hours to complete all three locations. If the weather does not co-operate, we will reschedule the date and we try to notify people in advance to save you from a false start.