Save the Sound Needs Volunteers to Collect Water Samples

Volunteers are needed to help monitor waters in western Long Island Sound for the 2016 season.

Last year, Save the Sound collected more than 400 water samples at 52 sites in Port Chester, Rye, Scarsdale, Harrison, Mamaroneck, Larchmont, New Rochelle, Pelham and Mount Vernon in New York and Greenwich in Connecticut.

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The organization will train volunteers in Environmental Protection Agency-approved methods for measuring water quality characteristics, such as dissolved oxygen, pH and temperatures.

Volunteers will also collect water samples that will be tested for bacteria levels in the Save the Sound lab.

“Citizen Science volunteers are an essential part of our water quality monitoring program—and for communities all along the coast of the western Sound,” said Peter Linderoth, water quality program manager for Save the Sound. “Getting community members engaged as citizen scientists is an opportunity for residents to get out into their own waters and see for themselves if their waters are safe to swim in and for fish to inhabit.”

Volunteers interested in monitoring waters should contact pollution@savethesound.org for more information. After completing training, volunteers will visit pre-selected sites in their communities to collect data that will deepen the organization's understanding of water quality in communities surrounding Long Island Sound.

The time commitment is approximately 90 minutes, one morning a week, during summer through Labor Day.

Photo caption: Volunteer Ashley Ryan at Marshlands Conservancy in Rye. Photo credit: Courtesy.