WQM PhotoThe Blackstone River Wartershed Association is in its fifth year of participating in the Blackstone River Coalition Watershed-wide Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program. With responsibility for 34 monitoring sites between Grafton and the Rhode Island border, the Blackstone River Watershed Association has been a major partner in this monitoring project.

WQM PhotoThirty eight field and laboratory volunteers received training to do chemical and physical monitoring. Samples are collected at a designated site on the second Saturday morning of every month from April through November. Tests done in the field include dissolved oxygen and temperature measurements of air and water. Samples are brought to a lab at Tri-County Medical Associates in Uxbridge, MA. where a group of lab volunteers tests the samples for pH, nitrates, phosphates and turbidity.

These data are used to promote better management of waterways and improve water quality of the watershed and its ecosystem, to develop the Blackstone Watershed Water Quality Report Card [ 2004 | 2005 | 2006 ] and to achieve a Fishable/Swimmable Blackstone River by 2015.