Nanticoke Creekwatchers

The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance’s Creekwatchers Citizen Monitoring Program began in July 2007 as a multi-year project to monitor the health of the Nanticoke River.  We knew from the start that it was ambitious – with over 370,000 acres, the Nanticoke’s watershed encompasses five counties in two states.  But we wanted to transcend political boundaries and take the “watershed perspective” – after all, water doesn’t know when it passes from one state to the next.  And with the generosity of DNREC and the Chesapeake Bay Trust, we became funded to operate in both states.    

In the past few months, this program has surpassed all of our expectations.  NWA ended the season with over 30 dedicated volunteers testing at 25 sites along the Nanticoke River and its tributaries, collecting several important measures of water quality.  And their level of engagement and commitment is extraordinary.  With the equipment and training provided, volunteers have literally transformed into a team of citizen scientists, going far beyond simple collection of a water sample to actually getting much of the data themselves.  Certain parameters – water clarity, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH and temperature – are measured onsite using a Secchi disk and other field instruments.  Samples are also collected to be analyzed for nutrients, bacteria and chlorophyll a.  Results of this program will help evaluate eutrophication trends and potential hazards to human health.

We have also developed a number of partnerships that provide a degree of rigor and accountability that we would have never been able to achieve on our own.  Envirocorp Labs in Harrington, DE donated all testing services and Johns Hopkins University is supplying data management and analytical services.  We’ve received technical training and support from the National Park Service, DNREC, MD DNR, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Salisbury University and Horn Point Labs.  We are incorporating several community organizations such as Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth, Galestown Mill Pond Association and Nanticoke Watershed Preservation Group to achieve broad watershed-wide coverage during our second sampling season.

People throughout the watershed have “come out of the woodwork” to donate their time, skills and passion to make our citizen monitoring program what it has become.  The fruits of this labor is an annual “State of the Nanticoke Watershed” report.  Data from the first season will help us understand the present health of the river – as the Creekwatchers program continues, we will be able to see potential trends that may emerge.  Beyond providing this information to the public, we will be submitting Creekwatcher data to state agencies and the EPA, making a direct contribution to efforts in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

The Nanticoke Creekwatchers Water Monitoring Program is becoming one of the keystone efforts of NWA – the work of its participants will help define the direction our Alliance goes in the future.  We will be able to focus restoration activities and work in conjunction our other keystone initiative, Green Infrastructure, to strengthen our impact and more fully enable us to fulfill our mission to preserve the Nanticoke River.

To learn more about the program or to become a Creekwatcher, contact Megan Ward, Program Coordinator.