Monitoring Committee
Water quality monitoring is a vital part of the watershed planning effort, providing information to better understand where pollutants originate and to determine priorities for project implementation. The monitoring committee was responsible for sample site identification and will be also identify and obtain historic water quality data, complete data review of current and historic data, and develop recommendations for the steering committee. Meeting minutes for the monitoring committee can be found here.
Historic Water Quality Data
Do you have water quality data or watershed information that you would like to contribute? Review this list to determine whether your data has been collected - if it is not included here, contact Sara Peel at speel@lafayette.in.gov to learn how to submit your data. Note: data will be used for management decision-making only and will not be published or used without the collector or author's permission.
Current Water Chemistry Sampling
Data collected through the current water quality monitoring program is focused on demonstrating a change in water quality from the current conditions to those observed following the next phases of the project where implementation of water quality projects will occur.
In order to demonstrate a change in water quality, a quality baseline dataset must be generated. When the monitoring committee met in the fall of 2008, they chose to focus their efforts on both the rural and urban portions of the watershed and selected two representative subwatersheds to the Wabash River. The urban subwatershed is represented by Elliott Ditch, while Little Wea Creek represents the rural portion of the watershed. A third site on Little Pine Creek will serve as the control by providing an idea of climatic and regional changes in water quality which are independent of the implementation of water quality improvement projects. Stream flow gages were installed at each of these three sites. By clicking each of the stream names above, the current flow rate and water level at each site can be observed. These gages record water levels every 15 minutes, while water quality samples will be collected weekly over a two year period. These samples will be analyzed for a variety of nutrient, sediment, and pathogen parameters.
Biological Community Assessment and Habitat Monitoring
A second phase of the current water quality program focuses on the assessment of the biological communities and habitat present within twelve of the streams within the Greater Lafayette Reach of the Wabash River watershed. Fish, bugs (macroinvertebrates), and habitat will be assessed at each site four times annually over the length of the project for a total of eight assessments.
Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring
Volunteer monitors are also sampling the water quality of the watershed streams. Volunteers collect information which supplements that collected through the formal water monitoring program. These data are collected quarterly. Additionally, an effort to sample water quality at many stream crossings within the watershed occurred on Friday, September 18th. Visit the Wabash Sampling Blitz page to review results and to learn how to volunteer for future Blitz events.
Maps and Data
Detailed current and historic sample sites map and current data are available below: