Local students learn how to monitor water quality on World Water Monitoring Day
by Bob Montgomery
Monday was World Water Monitoring Day and Conservation education and environmental monitoring staff from the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority spent part of the day teaching local students at Huron Centennial Public School about monitoring water. The students learned about water resources in their local watershed community and about the importance of monitoring water quality and protecting it. And they also learned about careers in conservation.
ABCA Healthy Watershed Manager Mari Veliz says there is a small drain at the school and ABCA staff demonstrated how they monitor for nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, sediments, dissolved oxygen and temperature. Veliz says monitoring is important because it provides baseline data for current conditions that allows us to detect changes in environmental conditions. The changes may be gradual or ‘chronic’ and take place over many years from many sources. They can also be sudden or ‘acute’ – such as a spill or contamination. Monitoring indicator species, such as benthic invertebrates and mussels, can tell a longer-term story of ecosystem health. Monitoring can also identify new threats such as invasive species or other concerns, such as poor drinking water. Veliz says without monitoring, those threats could go undetected and have implications for human and ecosystem health.
World Water Monitoring Day is traditionally celebrated each year on September 18 and is part of the World Water Monitoring Challenge which is observed each year to highlight work that takes place around the world to monitor water quality. This world-wide initiative takes place between March 22 (World Water Day) and December of each year. Find out more at EarthEcho Water Challenge (https://www.monitorwater.org/).
More information about local work to sample water and monitor the presence or absence of aquatic species in local watercourses, and to monitor water quality for the long term can be found on the Ausable Bayfield Conservation environmental monitoring web page (https://www.abca.ca/monitoring/).
