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Community Corner

Connecticut River Watch Program Seeks Durham/Middletown Volunteers

The Connecticut River Watch Program (CRWP), a volunteer water quality monitoring  program for the Connecticut River is seeking volunteers to help collect water samples to support water quality improvement efforts in the Coginchaug River Watershed. 

Since 1996, the Coginchaug River has been listed by the state as impaired and not supporting contact recreation and aquatic life due to bacteria. In 2009, the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District gathered a group of watershed stakeholders to help guide restoration efforts in the Coginchaug. Their common goal is to protect and improve water quality and to remove the river from the State’s Impaired Water list.

Community volunteers have assisted over the past two years by collecting water samples and now is your chance to roll up your sleeves and help in the recovery effort.  Sign up to be a water sampler for the Conservation District’s Connecticut River Watch Program and help preserve this beautiful natural habitat.

Water sampling will begin on June 25, 2014 and continue every Wednesday through August 20, 2014. Volunteers will collect samples in the morning before 8:00 a.m. and deliver the samples to a nearby drop-off location. Samples are then transported to the Department of Public Health State Laboratory for analysis.

Sample sites are located in all four watershed towns: Durham, Middlefield, Middletown, and North Guilford, where the headwaters of the Coginchaug River is located.  Volunteers can sign up for one or more sites to sample over the course of the study.

No experience is needed to help in the effort. A field training session will be scheduled once volunteers are signed up. Equipment, supplies and procedures will be distributed at the field training meeting. 

To sign up please call (860) 346-3282 or email kstarr@conservect.org.
For more information about the please visit the Conserve CT website by clicking here.

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