Hello all,
Donovan here. We're wrapping up (no pun intended) for our holiday break and finishing off the fall semester here at Plymouth State University. In the spirit of tidying up loose ends, I'd like to give an update from the LoVoTECS team.
Ashley Inserillo has moved onward and upward to a career with the State of NH where she'll work to keep our drinking water safe. We wish her the best and thank her for the invaluable contributions she made while she was here.
Ashley's responsibilities will fall to myself and our new colleague, Dan Evans. Dan comes to us with a good deal of experience working with large hydrological data sets and with HOBO loggers specifically.
Our road salt sites are all deployed!
We have four sites in the White Mountain National Forest, with one site serving as a control along Bear Notch Road, which is closed, and not deiced, in winter. The other WMNF sites are along the Kancamagus Hwy and on NH 49 in Waterville Valley. Additionally, we have three road salt sites monitoring the Squam Lakes watershed, on NH 113, NH 258, and at the intersection of NH 175 and US 3. Lastly, we will be monitoring NH 25's impact on Clay Brook in Plymouth.
We're excited that we managed to install all sites before any salt was used this season.
Our Road Salt sites can be found in our Google Map. Simply view the Road Salt Locations layer, or take note of the dark blue locations among all active sites.
LoVoTECS Locations
This phase of the LoVoTECS experience will be coming to an end in August. We're excited with the data you've all provided and now must compile it into the many stories it wants to tell. Look for updates as these stories come together.
Thank you, volunteers and partners, for all you do and all you've done. Like our loggers, we hope spring finds you safe, functional, and rich with memories.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Hey everyone!
I am Donovan King, a biologist, and I joined the LoVoTECS team as a field technician a few months ago after finishing my MS with Plymouth State University.
We have some exciting new work emerging for our LoVoTECS network.
We are currently in the process of moving our research upstream. We will continue to analyze the valuable data we obtained from all of your sites, but we are shifting our focus to the White Mountain tributaries. We will be further exploring the intrusion of road salt into streams at road crossings beginning this 2015/16 winter.
The Cary Institute notes that New Hampshire was the pioneer of using salt to deice our roadways, beginning our first experimental treatments in 1938. The ingenuity has made our highways safer and undoubtedly saved countless lives, but not without environmental consequences. Excess salt poses a risk to our stream ecosystems and contaminates the ground water feeding municipal drinking wells and reservoirs. Today, in the White Mountain region alone, we apply some 25 thousand tons of salt each year to maintain driving conditions on state roads and, likely in response to changing weather patterns, our annual road salt use has been increasing. Local roads and private landholders contribute even more, though the exact amounts are hard to ascertain.
Understanding how the direct input of salt from the road and the legacy salt of previous seasons leeching from soils and ground water interact is crucial to informed policy making. Our new research will attempt to isolate background ions – resulting from natural weathering - from the contribution of ions from deicing salts and pair this information with stream flow rates. To do this, we are installing standardized road salt monitoring sites with paired upstream and downstream sensors placed at prescribed distances from the road (see figure below). We hope to have all sites installed and collecting data prior to the 2015/2016 ice over.
In the Squam Lakes region, we are pairing our research with that of two new graduate students:
Rebecca Hanson is with the Squam Lakes Association. They have been monitoring water quality in the Squam Lake since 1979. She hopes to expand monitoring to our tributaries and examine modern threats to water quality, such as impacts from road salt application. This will better help the SLA to achieve their mission to protect the Squam Lakes and Watershed. Information gathered from this study will help to inform the updated Squam Watershed Plan, and enable them to not just monitor the lakes, but to take action in restoration and protection.
Anju Shrestha is researching a proof of concept to monitor phosphorous input into the lake. She will attempt to pair specific conductivity to phosphorous loading in the streams. If successful, this could improve the usefulness of our data collection methods.
We will be installing at least two of our standardized road salt monitoring sites on Squam Lake tributaries (see map below). Salt use along the northern watershed of Squam Lake, Rt. 113, has been increasing since 1997. Then, an average of 6.98 tons of salt per lane mile was applied. In 2015, the average salt per lane mile has more than doubled to 15.96 tons.
Map of Squam Lakes Sites
In contrast, the Tenney Mountain Hwy (Rt. 25) has seen a sporadic history of annual salt application from as little as 15 to as much as 30 tons per lane mile, with no noticeable change over the last 18 years. Here, we have installed a standardized monitoring site in Clay Brook.
The west end of the Kancamagus (Rt. 112) will also receive several standardized monitoring sites, though the exact locations are still being explored. We hope in the coming weeks to have chosen some informative locations so we can begin to collect data. The Kancamagus is exciting because road salt use is on the decline for NH’s famous roadway; from >20 tons per lane mile in the late 90s and peaking at 43 in 2003, application rates have been down to the teens for the last three years.
I am Donovan King, a biologist, and I joined the LoVoTECS team as a field technician a few months ago after finishing my MS with Plymouth State University.
We have some exciting new work emerging for our LoVoTECS network.
We are currently in the process of moving our research upstream. We will continue to analyze the valuable data we obtained from all of your sites, but we are shifting our focus to the White Mountain tributaries. We will be further exploring the intrusion of road salt into streams at road crossings beginning this 2015/16 winter.
The Cary Institute notes that New Hampshire was the pioneer of using salt to deice our roadways, beginning our first experimental treatments in 1938. The ingenuity has made our highways safer and undoubtedly saved countless lives, but not without environmental consequences. Excess salt poses a risk to our stream ecosystems and contaminates the ground water feeding municipal drinking wells and reservoirs. Today, in the White Mountain region alone, we apply some 25 thousand tons of salt each year to maintain driving conditions on state roads and, likely in response to changing weather patterns, our annual road salt use has been increasing. Local roads and private landholders contribute even more, though the exact amounts are hard to ascertain.
Understanding how the direct input of salt from the road and the legacy salt of previous seasons leeching from soils and ground water interact is crucial to informed policy making. Our new research will attempt to isolate background ions – resulting from natural weathering - from the contribution of ions from deicing salts and pair this information with stream flow rates. To do this, we are installing standardized road salt monitoring sites with paired upstream and downstream sensors placed at prescribed distances from the road (see figure below). We hope to have all sites installed and collecting data prior to the 2015/2016 ice over.
In the Squam Lakes region, we are pairing our research with that of two new graduate students:
Rebecca Hanson is with the Squam Lakes Association. They have been monitoring water quality in the Squam Lake since 1979. She hopes to expand monitoring to our tributaries and examine modern threats to water quality, such as impacts from road salt application. This will better help the SLA to achieve their mission to protect the Squam Lakes and Watershed. Information gathered from this study will help to inform the updated Squam Watershed Plan, and enable them to not just monitor the lakes, but to take action in restoration and protection.
Anju Shrestha is researching a proof of concept to monitor phosphorous input into the lake. She will attempt to pair specific conductivity to phosphorous loading in the streams. If successful, this could improve the usefulness of our data collection methods.
We will be installing at least two of our standardized road salt monitoring sites on Squam Lake tributaries (see map below). Salt use along the northern watershed of Squam Lake, Rt. 113, has been increasing since 1997. Then, an average of 6.98 tons of salt per lane mile was applied. In 2015, the average salt per lane mile has more than doubled to 15.96 tons.
Map of Squam Lakes Sites
In contrast, the Tenney Mountain Hwy (Rt. 25) has seen a sporadic history of annual salt application from as little as 15 to as much as 30 tons per lane mile, with no noticeable change over the last 18 years. Here, we have installed a standardized monitoring site in Clay Brook.
The west end of the Kancamagus (Rt. 112) will also receive several standardized monitoring sites, though the exact locations are still being explored. We hope in the coming weeks to have chosen some informative locations so we can begin to collect data. The Kancamagus is exciting because road salt use is on the decline for NH’s famous roadway; from >20 tons per lane mile in the late 90s and peaking at 43 in 2003, application rates have been down to the teens for the last three years.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Snapshot Results from 2013 & 2014
Happy Spring Everyone!
Please follow this link to view the LoVoTECS Snapshot results from Summer 2013 and 2014. Feel free to ping us with any questions!
Please follow this link to view the LoVoTECS Snapshot results from Summer 2013 and 2014. Feel free to ping us with any questions!
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
LoVoTECS expands into coastal Maine to investigate beach & shellfish flat closures
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Last year, Plymouth State University was the partial recipient
of a grant from the National Science Foundation to integrate research across state
lines. As a result, LoVoTECS expanded its network into coastal Maine in order to investigate water quality
related to closure of beaches and shellfish flats (http://www.newenglandsustainabilityconsortium.org/safe-beaches-shellfish).
We are excited to welcome our new partners,
who include: the Hancock & Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation
Districts, City of Ellsworth, Kennebec Esutary Land Trust, UMaine Cooperative Extension/Tanglewood 4-H Camp,
Coastal Studies for Girls and the Town of Hampton!
Below is a list of the new sites installed this field season:
1. Mousam River, Kennebunk, ME (MSM)
2. Card Brook, Ellsworth, ME (CAR)
3. McFarland Brook, Trenton, ME (MCF)
4. Flood Steam, Surry, ME (FLD)
5. Peters Brook, E. Blue Hill, ME (PET)
6. Long Creek, Portland, ME (2 sites: S18, S19)
7. Concord Gully, Freeport, ME (CGB)
8. Merrymeeting Bay/Chopps Point, Woolwich , ME (CHP)
9. Ducktrap River, Lincolnville, ME (DUK)
10. Taylor River, Hampton, NH (TAY)
Our data will help provide information for other interests
besides beach and shellfish closures- Check out the restoration project at Long
Creek site: http://www.restorelongcreek.org/
New Graduate Student
Hi everyone!
 |
| Baker River, Plymouth NH Photograph by Lisa Scott |
My name is Dan Demers and I’m an Environmental Science and
Policy graduate assistant at Plymouth State University working with data from
the LoVoTECS Network.
Prior to joining the program, I graduated from Westfield
State University in 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Science
and worked in a semi-volatile organic compound laboratory in Western Massachusetts.
Currently, I am looking at the characteristics of specific
electrical conductance (SpEC) at certain LoVoTECS sensor sites. SpEC is
electrical conductance (which is measured by the black, HOBO U24 sensors) after
it has been corrected for the temperature of the water. It is a measure of how
well water conducts electricity, increasing with the addition of dissolved
solids. Pure, deionized water does not conduct electricity at all, so this
measurement can help us learn about the presence and movement of ions within
our streams.
Here in New Hampshire, road salt is one of the key factors
that increases the SpEC of water, but it isn’t the only material that does
this, as you can see from the 2013
and 2014 snapshot results (link coming soon). If the SpEC conductance of water becomes too high, it
can affect organisms living in the
stream.
Usually when a storm occurs, the SpEC in a stream dilutes
with the addition of the new rain-water. However, during the beginning of some
storm events, at some sensor sites, the SpEC will briefly increase before
diluting. This increase, caused by a flushing of solutes into the stream (known
as first flush), can be quite large in some instances, even reaching levels which
can have an acute effect on lotic organisms.
I’m specifically looking at sensor sites in the network that
exhibit this first flush behavior in order to analyze how the events are affected
by seasonality, storm intensity, and the environmental conditions since a
previous storm. Essentially this means that I’m studying how time affects the ways
in which solute flushing events occur and behave.
Going forward, I hope to be able to accurately predict the presence,
duration, and magnitude of solute flushing at certain sites. This knowledge
will increase understanding of how water and solutes are transported within our
local environment and will be able to indicate which environmental conditions might
lead to SpEC-related problems for some lotic organisms’ well-being.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Tracing Urban Stormwater
Below is a time series from October 2013 showing water stage and specific electrical conductance at the three sites, highlighting three storms. The first is on Oct 4, which barely impacts the upstream site, has a clear signal in the storm drain, and that signal is also strong downstream of town. The rapid increase in stage and decrease in specific electrical conductance (SpEC) are typical storm responses within the LoVoTECS network. Groundwater is generally saltier than rain - thus the higher SpEC at low flows - and so direct runoff of rain dilutes a stream. But, the upstream site does not show a substantial stage or SpEC change after the Oct 4 event, which was about 0.5 inches of rain according to area CoCoRaHS observers. The two next waves of rain on Oct 6 and 8, were generally smaller than the Oct 4 amount, but the storm drain reacts strongly and so does the BBD downstream site. The upstream site shows some response to the Oct 6 and 8 rain, but much less than the other sites.
This clear impact of urban drainage on direct runoff to streams is novel. Because urban areas are so small relative to other land covers in a watershed, it is difficult to detect the hydrologic impact of urbanization in watersheds (see Hollis' critical view and O'Driscoll's recent review). Our partners and their sensors are seeing the impact.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
102 sites were sampled on 9/3/14!!! Check out your site's data and compare to July!
| SITE | System | Time of Sampling | pH | Sp Cond (us/cm) | Turbidity (NTU) |
| ARD | Androscoggin | 10:30 | 7.04 | 31.05 | 2.78 |
| ARU | Androscoggin | 9:50 | 6.96 | 28.57 | 1.1 |
| BAT | Borthwick Ave | 8:45-8:50 | 7.87 | 1.347 | 11.2 |
| BBD | Beaver Brook | 3:25 | 6.8 | 223.9 | 1.44 |
| BBK | Bogle Brook | 11:55 | 6.65 | 32.65 | 1.47 |
| BBO | Bear Brook | 9:10 | 6.3 | 56.15 | 0.766 |
| BBU | Beaver Brook | 3:05 | 7.02 | 98.34 | 1.61 |
| BBW | Beaver Brook | 12:15 | 6.94 | 176.8 | 1.78 |
| BDC | Burley Demerrit | 7:00 | 7.7 | 262.3 | 2.13 |
| BDD | Blood Brook | ||||
| BDU | Blood Brook | ||||
| BEC | Beards Creek | 12:00 | 7.98 | 342.8 | 4.93 |
| BEF | Albany Brook | 7:30 | 6.86 | 19.16 | 0.266 |
| BLD | Back Lake Brook | 7:15 | 7.58 | 73.07 | 3.54 |
| BLU | Back Lake Brook | 7:00 | 7.18 | 67.7 | 4.57 |
| BRD | Bellamy River | 1:55-2:00 | 7.46 | 202.5 | 10 |
| BRU | Bellamy River | 8:45-8:50 | 7.18 | 187.8 | 14.1 |
| BSW | Beaver Brook | 12:45 | 7.59 | 1158 | 0.352 |
| CBT | Clay Brook | 8:38 | 7.04 | 87.46 | 0.901 |
| CBU | Clay Brook | 9:03 | 7.19 | 43.59 | 1.66 |
| CCK | Cart Creek | 10:50 | 7.07 | 526.2 | 10.5 |
| CHB | Chesley Brook | 11:05 | 7.12 | 255.5 | 2.73 |
| COB | College Brook | 11:25 | 7.97 | 860 | 3.23 |
| CRD | Creamery Brook | 8:52 | 7.15 | 216.3 | 5.08 |
| CRU | Creamery Brook | 9:00 | 6.93 | 203.1 | 0.465 |
| CSP | Cedar Swamp | 9:40 | 5.87 | 267.6 | 5.44 |
| CTC | Connecticut | 11:30 | 7.39 | 39.29 | 2.8 |
| CTP | Connecticut River | 12:15 | 7.32 | 33.77 | 5.55 |
| DBB | Dube Brook | 10:35 | 7.08 | 113.6 | 8.66 |
| DCF | Dowst-Cate | 9:45 | 6.91 | 49.07 | 1.4 |
| DGB | Douglas Brook | 11:55 | 6.92 | 23.89 | 1.04 |
| ELL | Ellis River | 12:35 | 6.61 | 35.91 | 0.219 |
| EMB | Emerson Brook | 10:05 | 6.89 | 22.21 | 0.107 |
| EXT | Exeter River | ||||
| HBF | Paradise Brook | 7:50 | 6.32 | 14.29 | 2.97 |
| HCA | Hosley Brook | 9:30 | 6.49 | 16.96 | 0.446 |
| HCB | Hosley Brook | 11:30 | 6.66 | 31.89 | 0.867 |
| HCD | Hosley Brook | 11:25 | 6.86 | 32.72 | 1.33 |
| HCE | Hosley Brook | 10:00 | 6.68 | 23.79 | 0.209 |
| HCF | Hosley Brook | 11:15 | 6.89 | 30.57 | 6.78 |
| HCG | Hosley Brook | 10:50 | 6.81 | 30.89 | 1.26 |
| HCH | Hosley Brook | 10:40 | 6.8 | 31.48 | 0.764 |
| HCI | Hosley Brook | 10:20 | 6.31 | 32.46 | 0.771 |
| HCJ | Hosley Brook | 11:00 | 6.5 | 29.89 | 0.799 |
| HCK | Hosley Brook | 10:30 | 6.79 | 32.46 | 1.08 |
| HOB | Hodgson Brook | 9:10-9:15 | 7.72 | 760 | 1.98 |
| HYB | Halfway Brook | 7:29 | 7.28 | 118.7 | 1.5 |
| IDM | Ispwich Dam | 10:30 | 7.06 | 417.8 | 2.64 |
| IRD | Israel River | 8:30 | 6.94 | 52.72 | 5.39 |
| IRU | Israel River | 9:35 | 6.95 | 24.65 | 3.02 |
| JOB | Johnson Brook | 10:45 | 7.09 | 25.73 | 0.53 |
| LND | Pemigewasset River | 3:20 | 6.65 | 28.65 | 0.196 |
| MCQ | McQuesten Brook | 10:45 | 7.68 | 634.5 | 2.39 |
| MEB | Middle Brook | 8:13 | 7.22 | 81.73 | 4.87 |
| MMR | Merrymeeting River | 9:15 | 6.33 | 74.39 | 0.796 |
| MOD | Moose River | 8:35 | 6.6 | 57.87 | 2.09 |
| MOU | Moose River | 9:15 | 7 | 87.79 | 7.01 |
| MOX | Merrimack River | 6.95 | 93.18 | 1.02 | |
| MRC | Mad River | 7:01 | 6.86 | 39.19 | 1.07 |
| MRL | Mad River | ||||
| MUC | Merrimack River | 10:45 | 7.13 | 90.02 | 0.816 |
| MUM | Merrimack River | 7.08 | 98.6 | 1.08 | |
| MWW | Merrimack River | 11:15 | 7 | 94.21 | 0.898 |
| NED | Contocook | 11:10 - 11:30 | 7.51 | 95.21 | 0.818 |
| NEU | Contocook | 11:45 | 7.19 | 86.68 | 0.918 |
| NSB | Salmon Brook | 8:13 | 7.75 | 371.3 | 2.35 |
| NWD | Newfields Ditch | 9:25-9:30 | 7.83 | 770.8 | 2.81 |
| OBG | Otter Brook | 11:40 | 7.23 | 100 | 1.54 |
| OGS | Oyster River at USGS | 10:52 | 7.11 | 175.7 | 9.95 |
| OMP | Oyster River at Mill Pond Dam | 11:43 | 7.68 | 296.1 | 2.94 |
| OSS | Ossipee River | 6.85 | 51.17 | 0.419 | |
| PBB | Pine Bend Brook | 10:45 | 6.89 | 20.43 | 0.252 |
| PBD | Piscataquog | 9:07 | 7.07 | 77.06 | 1.66 |
| PBI | Main Piscataquog | 8:07 | 7.01 | 120.8 | 1.22 |
| PBU | South Piscataquog | 8:51 | 7.1 | 80.72 | 2.06 |
| PDM | Parker Dam | 11:10 | 7.52 | 413.7 | 1.74 |
| PEB | Pettee Brook | 12:16 | 7.7 | 751.6 | 1.74 |
| PGS | Paugus Brook | 10:50 | 6.6 | 22.43 | 0.182 |
| PIN | Pine River | 6.95 | 75.42 | 1.04 | |
| PRF | Pemigewasset River | 11:41 | 6.95 | 76.58 | 0.889 |
| PRG | Piscataquog | 6:10 | 7.27 | 104.4 | 1.41 |
| PRP | Pemigewasset River | 9:34 | 6.99 | 93.3 | 1.09 |
| PRW | Pemigewasset River | 3:50 | 6.88 | 72.14 | 0.363 |
| PWU | North Piscataquog | 7:50 | 7.02 | 62.01 | 0.821 |
| RHB | Rand Brook | 10:09 | 6.88 | 52.17 | 5.22 |
| RHL | Red Hill River | 7:44 | 7.22 | 63.26 | 0.605 |
| SBK | Sawmill Brook | 9:10 | 7.16 | 1405 | 2.81 |
| SBM | Saddleback | 9:30 | 6.26 | 31.08 | 0.127 |
| SCD | Dead Dimond River | 8:00 | 7.08 | 42.36 | 1.16 |
| SCS | Swift Diamond River | 8:30 | 7.26 | 32.97 | 1 |
| SHB | Schoolhouse Brook | 10:55 | 7.29 | 34.42 | 1.01 |
| SLB | Slide Brook | 9:21 | 6.91 | 27.29 | 0.412 |
| SNB | Shannon Brook | 8:26 | 7.4 | 80.8 | 2.82 |
| SQB | Unnamed Belnap Woods | 9:50 | 7.28 | 118.2 | 0.635 |
| SQM | Mill Brook | 10:13 | 6.94 | 49.06 | 0.427 |
| SQR | Squamscott River | ||||
| SRM | Swift River | 1:30 | 6.41 | 27.99 | 0.478 |
| SRU | Swift Upper | 9:20 | 6.37 | 48.87 | 0.419 |
| SRN | Sugar River North | 2:11 | 7.25 | 120.8 | 1.73 |
| SRS | Sugar River South | 2:36 | 7.14 | 98.18 | 3.55 |
| SWP | Storm Drain (Highland St) | 9:21 | 7.81 | 1428 | 3.48 |
| TPB | Trout Pond Brook | 8:30 | 6.57 | 19.34 | 0.736 |
| USW | Pemigewasset River | 4:15 | 6.37 | 62.2 | 0.388 |
| WAM | Wild Ammonoosuc | 2:55 | 7.15 | 59.01 | 0.435 |
| WBG | Whittle Brook | 6:15 | 7.26 | 108.5 | 0.96 |
| WHB | Wednesday Hill Brook | 7:30 | 7.93 | 369.1 | 4.67 |
| WIN | Winnepesauke River | 11:20 | 7.27 | 107.4 | 4.84 |
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