Volunteers Sought to Monitor Quality of Area Waterways
On a nice spring day, it doesn’t take much to get Tammy Englund of Champlin out to Elm Creek Park in Maple Grove.
“It’s 10 minutes from my house, so it’s nice to have a place like this so close to come and be with nature, enjoy nature, and spend some time,” said Englund.
But for the last two years, her nature walks have required her to carry around a little more equipment than usual.
Englund is one of 1,200 people who have signed up to be a volunteer water monitor for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
“It’s something small and easy that I can do that brings meaningful data to the MPCA to inform them of water quality trends,” Englund said.
The program requires volunteers to collect data that helps the MPCA determine the overall health of a lake or stream. Minnesota has more than 12,000 lakes and 92,000 miles of streams.
“Our staff only monitors in the watershed every 10 years,” said Waverly Reibel, the volunteer water monitoring program specialist with the MPCA. “And so our volunteers prevent the data gaps in between those 10 years.”
The body of water that Englund has volunteered to monitor is Elm Creek, located near the Eastman Nature Center.
To collect the data she needs, she tosses a bucket into the creek, fills it with water, and then pours that water into a Secchi tube (provided by the MPCA).
Tammy Englund measures the water clarity of Elm Creek.
She then drops a small disc into the tube to test for clarity.
“And we drop it further and further down into the tube to see if it comes to a point where it disappears and we can’t see it anymore,” Englund said as she performed the test.
Her test on a recent Thursday showed 100 percent clarity.
After the test, she jots down a few notes to send back to the MPCA, and then she’s done.
“And that’s it. It’s as simple as that,” Englund said.
The entire process only takes about five minutes. But the data she collects has a lasting impact on the environment.
“We wouldn’t be able to run the water clarity trends, or do the assessments that we need to, without our volunteers,” said Reibel.
The MPCA needs volunteers to measure water clarity twice a month during the summer. To sign up, go to the MPCA website.
Related: Two Plymouth Lakes Removed from Impaired Waters List
