Stream Monitoring and Quality Assessment
Fact Sheet

Butler SWCD and several other local organizations are working towards starting a new collaborative water quality monitoring program throughout Butler County. More information on this program will be posted as it becomes available.

Background Info: Streams are monitored as a way of recognizing the quality of water, and noticing when that quality is changing. If streams become more polluted and are not cleaned, the pollutants can spread into our aquifer, lakes, ponds, reservoirs; the places people depend for drinking water, recreation and daily life.

The type of stream testing the Butler SWCD promotes is a qualitative study. It does not provide research-grade information, only the general status of the stream. This is all done without high-tech equipment. Instead, items such as a seine, hand lens, collection pans, gloves and sturdy footwear. It relies on the population of macroinvertebrate animals. Macroinvertebrates are organisms lacking a backbone and are visible to the naked eye. In freshwater streams, this category includes various species of insects, crustaceans (crayfish), mollusks (clams), gastropods (snails), and oligochaetes (worms).

Kick seines are the nets used to capture macroinvertebrate animals living in the shallow riffle areas, or are floating in the stream's current. After identifying and counting the different organisms in the sample, a general condition of the stream's condition can be determined. A high collection of pollution intolerant organisms indicates that the general health of the stream is "excellent". As the number of the collected pollution-tolerant species increases, the stream's condition degrades to "fair" or "poor".

There is a wide range of people who participate in this type of activity. Some companies, organizations and government offices make this a part of their weekly or monthly schedule. However, most of the work is done by volunteers who have a particular interest in a certain point in the stream. These people include; families with a backyard creek, a fisherman maintaining his or her favorite spot, classroom teachers using stream monitoring as a biology or ecology lesson, even scout troops working on badges.

Free instructional classes are available to prepare volunteers for the program. Safety, procedures and techniques are discussed in detail to prevent problems on the test site. All equipment may be borrowed for future testing.

Lynn White, Butler SWCD Education Specialist