Schuylkill River Water Quality Monitoring & Community Science Assessments

Schuylkill River Greenways, in partnership with Berks Nature, Bartram’s Garden, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education,  and Stroud Water Research Center, contracted Princeton Hydro to conduct a Water Quality Monitoring Project for the Schuylkill River. This project, focused on the main stem of the river from Berks Nature in Reading, PA to Bartram’s Garden in southwest Philadelphia, aims to document the current ecological status and health of the river and seeks to engage and educate a diverse set of river users and residents. 

To understand local perceptions of the Schuylkill River’s residents, we collaborated with the stakeholder team to design a community opinion survey, which was conducted by OpinionWorks. The results of the survey, which showed that respondents care about the river but are not confident whether it is clean or safe to use for recreational activity, are driving the design priorities of the citizen science water quality monitoring effort. To maximize quality control and assure the data collected by volunteers are scientifically accurate, we divided the effort into two categories and developed protocol for each: (1) Visual Assessments to document the abundance and distribution of trash and litter, and (2) Scientific Documentation of Critical Water Quality Parameters to understand bacterial inputs and associated metrics. 

Visual Assessments require no formal training or sampling experience and are meant to be a simple effort that any citizen scientist can complete. We’ve developed an assessment survey using Arc123 Survey Portal, which can be accessed and submitted via a smartphone or tablet by opening a link in the phone/tablet’s browser. The goal is to document critical areas of trash accumulation or dumping points in order to guide management efforts to better deal with this pollution. In addition to the multiple choice questions to rank trash levels and quantities, this platform asks volunteers to submit a photo and collects the GPS location. By utilizing this user-friendly platform, the data collected under this effort can be easily summarized in custom, georeferenced databases, and/or visualized via an ArcGIS interactive map.

The second protocol, Scientific Documentation of Critical Water Quality Parameters, was conducted by the stakeholder group’s employees and long term volunteers, who were trained in data collection and scientific methods. We collected data on bacterial concentrations in the river using a combination of 3-M Petrifilm kits and laboratory based analytical measures. In addition, in-situ temperature, oxygen, pH, and turbidity data was be collected utilizing Mayfly dataloggers. Princeton Hydro scientists hosted an in-person training to review the methods and protocols with the volunteers to assure the highest level of quality.  This long-term data collection effort is slated to begin in August 2020 and continue for approximately one year. The results of this assessment will allow us to determine potential hotspots related to nutrient and bacteria inputs and to understand the overall ecological health of the river. 

To bring the project together and bridge the gap between how residents use and perceive the Schuylkill River with the current ecological status of its main corridor, the Princeton Hydro GIS team is developing a publicly accessible ArcGIS StoryMap webpage to showcase the historic land use, integrate the citizen science water quality monitoring data, and map outdoor/nature opportunities (trails, parks, public access). Overall, through this effort, we hope to connect residents and communities with the Schuylkill River and encourage engagement with this special resource.