Pine Islanders test waters for quality
The Charlotte Harbor Estuaries Volun-teer Water Quality Monitoring Network is a group of volunteers that collect water quality data throughout the estuaries in the Charlotte Harbor area. The area extends from north of Sarasota south to Estero.
Once a month, about 30 minutes before sunrise, CHEVWQMN volunteers Phil and Joan Rosenberg get in their boat and head out into San Carlos Ba,y south of St. James City.
“We’re going east out to SCV002,” Phil Rosenberg said. “SCV stands for San Carlos Bay Volunteer and we monitor sites 001 and 002. These are ‘fixed’ stations where volunteers take water samples to be forwarded to Federal Department of Environmental Protection – Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves.”
Charlotte Harbor estuaries include seven diverse interconnected estuaries within the state’s 42 aquatic preserves. The estuaries within the CHEVWQMN volunteer monitoring network include: Charlotte Harbor, Gasparilla Sound, Cape Haze, Lemon Bay, Pine Island Sound, Matlacha Pass and Estero Bay.
The Rosenbergs have been monitoring the water quality for 3-4 years.
“The monthly monitoring has provided reliable water quality data for over 20 years,” Rosenberg said. “It was started to address the need of aquatic preserve resource managers to obtain baseline resource information about the health of the estuaries. In the 3 to 4 years we’ve been doing this the numbers haven’t changed very much.”
CHEVWQMN is a partnership of from 75 to 100 “citizen monitors,” the Florida DEP, Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center and Charlotte Harbor National Estuary program.
Each volunteer must follow the sampling protocols: the sample must be taken at sunrise; the sample collection is a “surface grab” following 14 field parameters which include dissolved oxygen (D.O.), water temperature, wind speed and direction, pH, air temperature, precipitation, salinity, water clarity, weather and water surface conditions, water color, water depth and tide stage.
This morning, the Rosenbergs approached SCV002 just before 7 a.m. and anchored the boat. SCV002 is located at navigation marker #4/Woodrings Pt. Sanibel. After anchoring the Rosenbergs recorded atmospheric data and prepared the equipment.
Sunrise at 6:53
Start time: 7 a.m.
Partly cloudy
Wind direction East
Wind speed 4-7 mph
Air Temperature 26 C (79 F)
Four water sample bottles – chlorophyl, phosphorous nitrogen, color/turbidity and fecal coliform – were taken.
“These will be dropped off at Pine Island Water Company,” Rosenberg said. “The water company doesn’t have anything to do with the program, they’re just a drop off point.”
After several calibrations to ensure the accuracy of measurements the “YSI Probe plus meter” was used.
“This is new for us and we’re still getting used to it but the YSI Probe plus meter measures temperature, oxygen, pH and conductivity,” Rosenberg said.
Measurements taken at SCV002 were: Water temp – 30.7 C (87 F), Dissolved Oxygen percent 82.3, pH reading 8.1, and Salinity 25.76.
The depth of the water was measured at 3.7 meters and a Secci meter was used to measure water clarity. Rosenberg determined that the water color was green/brown and the meter was visible at 1.3 meters. Only slight variations were recorded from the test the previous month.When tests were completed, they moved to SCV001, which is located directly south of St. James City at navigation marker #12. Atmospheric conditions at SCV001 were only slightly different and temperature and wind speed had increased slightly.
“Conditions here are going to be different because we’re at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River,” Rosenberg said. “At the previous location (SCV002) we were at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. Interestingly even after releases from Lake Okeechobee we don’t really see big changes in our readings.
“The mission of the Aquatic Preserve Program is to ‘protect and maintain the natural conditions of aquatic preserves for future generations,'” Rosenberg said. “We do this to help the community and the program. Many people ask is the water getting worse and the real answer is no it isn’t.”
For additional information, visit the DEP website for the CHEVWQMN program at www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites / charlotte/volunteer/waterquality.htm
To view the collected data visit: www.chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/chevwqmn/