SURFSIDE BEACH VOLUNTEER WATER QUALITY MONITORING

SURFSIDE BEACH
VOLUNTEER WATER QUALITY MONITORING
Information Fact Sheet (02/16/10)
WHAT IS Volunteer Monitoring?
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When trained citizen volunteers collect scientific data.
Examples: water quality, bird counts, turtle counts, weather, oysters (SCORE)
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
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Leverages brains, experience and insights of the volunteers
Get more sampling done.
Better connect data collection to community concerns and policy decisions
Help meet Surfside’s NPDES Phase II Stormwater Program requirements
Promotes environmental stewardship
Intergenerational activity
HOW ARE THE DATA USED?
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Identify hot spots
Detect illicit discharges
Detect trends over time
Document improvements from stormwater management activities
WHAT IS MEASURED AND HOW?
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Bacteria (E. coli and Total Coliform) – Easygel incubation – dual confirmation
Nutrients (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite) – test strips
Turbidity – desktop meter
Salinity, temperature, oxygen, pH – field meters
WHO ELSE IS DOING THIS LOCALLY?
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Murrells Inlet ( 8 sites biweekly) since 2008
Waccamaw River (12 sites biweekly) since 2006
Please explore the web pages for the Waccamaw River and Murrells Inlet
programs at: http://www.coastal.edu/wwa/vm/index.html
Prepared by the Waccamaw Watershed Academy
WHAT DO WE GET FOR $7000 PER YEAR PER SAMPING SITE?
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Provision of training, all equipment and supplies
o includes replacement of aging/broken equipment
Quality control of all data
o Rretraining if data is not meeting QC requirements or at your request
Project SOPs and Quality Assurance Project Plan
Online data entry
Secure data archiving
One data conference per year including data interpretation
Rapid response reports for illicit discharge detection
One meeting of the volunteers per year (luncheon or breakfast)
A project brochure
Project web site including online interactive data delivery
o One month lag on average
Participation in World Water Monitoring Day
WHAT OTHER MONITORING IS BEING DONE (OR HAS BEEN DONE) IN SURFSIDE?
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SC DHEC – BEACH monitoring program May through October since 1997
o Enterococcus in surf zone.
VM in monitoring at Woodlawn Drive as part of Murrells Inlet program.
Short –term
o Horrry County: Sediment pond (2009)
o US EPA: qPCR validation (2009)
o USGS: turbidity/bacteria prediction model (2006)
o CCU: homeowner bacteria sampling (2000)
o Davis & Floyd: bacteria grab sampling (2000)
WHAT DO WE DO NEXT?
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Sign contract, CCU buys equipment
Designate a field leader (?)
Recruit and train volunteers
o Partner with Murrells Inlet?
Pick sampling site
o What is it that you are looking to know?
o Practicality
Pick sampling date and time
Prepared by the Waccamaw Watershed Academy