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As we enter August, there are only three weeks left before our bacteria sampling season comes to a close. This season we monitored 29 active sites along the South, West, and Rhode rivers. Bacteria results are highly localized, and we recommend always following the golden rules of swimming: don’t swim with an open cut or wound, don’t swim after a rain event, and always check bacteria results. The weekly results are posted on Friday afternoons on our website, social media, and on swimguide.com. If you would like to find out more about our bacteria sampling program or are interested in volunteering, please visit our website. The hard work and dedication of our volunteers make this program possible, so a huge shoutout to our bacteria sampling team!
On August 1st, we harvested a second round of sago pondweed, a species of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV), from the Severn River. Over the next couple weeks, we will process this SAV to extract the seeds as they continue to ripen out of the water. Our last round of sago harvest and processing produced over 230,000 seeds. In total, we’ve processed 1.7 million SAV seeds to be planted next fall or spring in our rivers. This batch of SAV will wrap up our inaugural SAV turbulating season. Thank you to all of our volunteers for their hard work and incredible support!
We are a little more than halfway through our water quality monitoring season, and it’s no surprise that we’re seeing our warmest water temperatures of the year thus far. Station temperatures for the month of July averaged from 80-86° F across our rivers. These hot temperatures bring expected dips in water clarity and dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. Even though DO values are predictably low at this time of year, we have not seen any zero oxygen events! One of our lowest DO measurements was taken at our station near the Riva Bridge. For the second month in a row, we recorded DO levels of less than 1 mg/L. For reference, 5 mg/L is the threshold considered healthy for aquatic life. However, some stations (Crab and Glebe creeks) rebounded slightly in July from extreme low June DO measurements. As salinity slowly rises over the summer months, we have started to see some jellies return to our rivers. Stay tuned as we wrap up our bacteria season and SAV program!
In other exciting news, your South, West, and Rhode Riverkeeper, Elle Bassett welcomed another future river lover into the world! Oliver (Ollie) Thomas Bassett, 8lbs 8oz was born on Monday, July 29, 2024. Elle, Ollie, dad KJ, and big brother Fin are all home and doing well. Please join us in congratulating the Bassetts!
