This page is intended to give you some general information on the reasoning for the existence of the CWA water quality monitoring program so that you can understand it's importance and to see how the efforts of our individual volunteers fit into the larger picture.  Further on, you will learn about:

History

Early in the life of the CWA, we were approached by representatives of the Pittsburgh chapter of EASI.  EASI is an acronym that stands for the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement.  It is a nation-wide organization which recruits individual volunteers (senior citizens mostly, but not exclusively) and trains and equips them to monitor water quality in their local areas.  It is a non-profit organization and in Pennsylvania it is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and the Department of Aging.

The Pittsburgh EASI chapter had established several monitoring teams on some streams in Allegheny County but were looking to expand outward into some of the surrounding counties.  They somehow got wind of CWA's existence and offered to help us start a monitoring program in our watershed.  What an offer!  In April of 2000 several of the Pittsburgh EASI folk came up here and trained our first four monitoring teams.  Our program has expanded since then and we how have ten teams monitoring 21 sites on 11 different streams in the watershed.

The CWA water quality monitoring program currently has a relationship with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (http://www.paconserv.org).  We still use the EASI monitoring manuals, still follow the EASI sampling protocol in the field and we still train our folks the way that EASI trained us.

Why do we monitor?

Many inhabitants of Butler County are at least peripherally aware of the fact that the Connoquenessing suffered from high levels of nitrates, due to discharges from the AK Steel plant in Butler.  The discharges were well documented and quite legal, as the plant had been issued a National Pollutant Elimination Discharge System (NPDES) permit to discharge which required them to monitor the discharge.  By the late 1990s, the high downstream nitrate levels had become unacceptable to consumers and municipalities.  It came to a head in 2001 with the net result being AK Steel changing their steel making process  so that it no longer discharges unacceptable nitrate concentrations into the Connie.

While all of that was going on, it became apparent that a whole lot was known about that particular problem in that particular stretch of creek but that little was know about the water quality in the rest of the streams in the watershed.  Our monitoring program was designed to be a regular, systematic and ongoing process that established a baseline to tell us where we started, as far as water quality is concerned, and where we're going.

Where do we monitor?

There is an underlying logic to the selection of our monitoring sites.  Two factors - this is a big watershed (430 square miles) and we are a small group.  We decided to concentrate our initial efforts on the Connoquenessing subwatershed.  We planned to branch out into the other subwatersheds later, as resources would allow.  In December 2001 we put our first team on Slippery Rock Creek and our first team on Muddy Creek. 

We did a Study Design to focus our efforts.  Every watershed has a variety of development and activities that can affect water quality.  Examples are residential development, commercial and industrial development and activities, logging, strip mining, landfills, sewage treatment plants, etc.  With the help of our in-house technical and some professional help from outside the Alliance, we looked at the Connie subwatershed and selected a number of sampling sites to be representative examples of the varied land usage scenarios.  Locations of CWA's monitoring sites are indicated on the maps associated with this website (click here).  Photos of selected sampling locations are shown on the Photo page.

For What Do We Monitor?

The goal of our monitoring program at this stage is to get a general picture of the water quality of the streams in our watershed.  To that end, we perform a small battery of tests for some basic water quality indicators using standard field monitoring kits manufactured by the Hach Company of Loveland, CO. 

The tests (click for more information):

pH (critical use standard 6.0 to 9.0)

This is a measure of the relative acidity or alkalinity of water.  The pH scale ranges from 0.0 (extremely acidic) to 14.0 (extremely alkaline).  A pH of 7.0 is considered neutral.  Most fish can tolerate pH values between 6.5 and 8.2, a relatively narrow range.  pH problems in natural waters are, unfortunately, fairly common in western Pennsylvania, primarily due to acid mine drainage (AMD).  Secondary sources of pH problems are the decay of excessive organic materials and acid rainfall.

Specific Conductivity (critical use standard 10 mg/L)

The measure of the ability of water to conduct an electric current - in practice, a measure of the amount of dissolved solids a water contains.

Dissolved Oxygen (critical use standard 4.0 mg/L)

The relative amount of oxygen that is dissolved in water.  Oxygen becomes dissolved in water by diffusion from surrounding air, by aeration as water travels and as a waste product of photosynthesis. 

Oxygen is a fundamental requirement for plant and animal life in and around any body of water.  When wastes with high organic content are discharged into a body of water, oxygen is depleted when bacteria break down the organic matter, using oxygen in the process.  Oxygen used during the breakdown of organic matter is less available for fish and other aquatic organisms.

Alkalinity (critical use standard 20 mg/L)

Alkalinity is not a pollutant and should not be confused with the alkaline range of the pH scale.  Alkalinity is a measure of the substances dissolved in water that can buffer (neutralize acidity).

The main sources of alkalinity are the rocks through which natural waters flow.  Rocks containing carbonate, bicarbonate and hydroxide compounds contribute to alkalinity.  Limestone is rich is carbonates, so water flowing through limestone (common in western PA) often have high alkalinity and, thus, good buffering capacity.  Such streams will be less seriously impacted by acid mine drainage (AMD) or acid rain.

Nitrates (critical use standard maximum 10 mg/L) and Phosphates (no CUS)

Both nitrates and phosphates are plant nutrients applied as fertilizers.  Their presence in water can be beneficial since they will increase algae and plant growth and, thus, increase the food supply for fish and other higher members of the food chain.  However, excessive nutrients cause excessive plant and algae growth.  Overgrowth becomes unsightly and interferes with recreational use of water as well as contributing to unpleasant odor and taste of water.  Also, as this excessive plant growth dies and decays, oxygen is depleted from the water, choking out other life forms.

Sources of both nitrates and phosphates include domestic sewage, farm runoff and industrial discharge.

Sulfates (critical use standard maximum 250 mg/L)

Sulfates are sulfur compounds that result from a series of chemical reactions involving sulfur, oxygen and water.  Sulfur in the form of pyrite is found in coal seams.  Sources of sulfate in natural waters include AMD and acid rain.

Physical Parameters for Which We Monitor:

Biological Parameters for Which We Monitor:

Twice a year we do macro invertebrate surveys.  Macro invertebrates (think macro=large, as opposed to micro and  invertebrates=animals which do not have backbones) are simply bugs.  Bugs are variously tolerant and intolerant of pollution so the presence or absence of a particular species can be a good overall indicator of stream health.  By recording the number and type of macro invertebrates present, we can form a more complete picture of how all of these individual elements that we monitor are interacting and the effects the interactions are having on stream life.  

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What Does it Mean?

Following is a brief example of how evaluation of the monitoring data can help us understand the dynamics of the watershed.  Below is a graph of the sulfate concentration over time in one sampling location:

What does this graph tell us? 

The black trend line has a decreasing slope over time.  Simply put, this tells us that Stream Restoration's efforts at remediating the effects of AMD are apparently effective at this location.  This is just one small piece of data in a very large watershed.  Data evaluation efforts are ongoing.