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Water quality monitoring can be done through
volunteers or as a valuable outreach project for schools to
participate in.
(Very little training is needed to conduct most tests.) |
If you live on, own a cabin on or just like to visit a favorite lake in Minnesota, you are the perfect person for the monitoring program. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Citizen Lake-Monitoring Program is in need of dozens of volunteers to keep track of water quality on lakes across the state. Data gathered once each week during the summer by volunteers yields valuable information about the current health of Minnesota's waters. Now in its 32nd year, volunteers in the program are monitoring 900 different lakes. The job doesn't take much time. Volunteers visit a designated spot on the lake where they drop anchor, make notes of the water's physical condition and recreational suitability and measure the clarity of the water with a Secchi disk -- an 8 inch white metal disk that is lowered into the water until it can no longer be seen. The depth, measured by markings on the cord, helps give a snapshot of the lake's relative water quality. |