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RRWA Water Quality Monitoring Program
– 2020/2021 (click for more info)

Water Quality Monitoring in the
Rahway River Watershed

The Rahway River Watershed Association’s Water Quality Monitoring Program has been a dream for many years, and we gratefully acknowledge the generous help and support of many individuals and organizations for their role in bringing this program to life. We heartily thank The Watershed Institute for financial support and sharing the varied and indispensable expertise of their staff.

Water Quality Monitoring – 2018 Program

Our water quality monitoring program provides an opportunity for folks to get to know their local waterway and participate in gathering information to assess the condition of the river. We have chosen riverside sites in each of the Rahway River branches and tributary streams, and are working with NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassadors to train residents how to do visual assessments on sites that they “adopt.”

Three visual assessment training sessions were given by the Watershed Ambassadors on April 28th, May 5th, and October 13th of 2018. The resulting trained individuals constitute our current volunteer RRWA Stream Team. Stream Team members adopt locations throughout the watershed and perform biannual evaluations of the river.

CLICK HERE to view the RRWAs online ArcGis map of monitoring locations. The red stars indicate locations that have been adopted and green stars indicate locations that need monitoring. If you are interested in becoming part of our Stream Team please call Clea at 908-892-7229. We will be offering a training session in the Spring of 2019, date to be determined.

2018 RRWA Water Quality Report Card –

After completing Spring and Fall assessments, data was compliled and input, and a report detailing the experiences and findings of the program was created. All data contained in the 2018 Water Quality Report Card was collected by RRWA staff,  and volunteer citizen scientists.

To view the 2018 Water Quality Report Card CLICK HERE.

Water Quality Assessment Report –

In addition to the Report Card, and as a part of the Watershed Institute grant, a Water Quality Assessment Report was developed from legacy data of the Rahway River.

Water monitoring throughout New Jersey has been required since 1975 for compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. Since the beginning and on into the present, much of the water that flows into the Rahway River is polluted by fecal bacteria and phosphates. Both of these enter the river through storm drains when rain or melting snow carries pet waste and lawn fertilizer into the storm sewers. Regulating this storm water pollution is more challenging than correcting waste water pollution that comes out of a pipe. Waste water discharges are tightly regulated in New Jersey, but curing storm water pollution requires self-regulation of our own behavior.

To view the Water Quality Assessment Report CLICK HERE.

Five Year Water Quality Monitoring Plan –

With a look to the future, the RRWA plans to continue and grow our Water Quality Monitoring Program, funds permitting. We are actively seeking grant funding for this purpose. It is our hope to begin macroinvertebrate, chemical, and bacterial monitoring in the near future.

To view our Five Year Plan CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

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