Storm Water

Introduction

We recruited these volunteers in order to expand our sampling capability.  To more broadly characterize the overall significance of the stormwater inputs to Lake Champlain, we needed to be able to sample simultaneously at a number of locations across the bay.   Using volunteers provided several benefits – the volunteers were given the opportunity to provide meaningful data on the lake and observe first hand the quality of stormwater runoff reaching Burlington Bay during storm events, and we were able to gather much more information than we could relying solely on our own project personnel resources.

The data collected by the stormwater volunteers are being posted regularly on the Burlington Eco Info web site, so the broader Burlington community also has the opportunity to learn about our results.

In addition to sampling more sites, we also wanted to be able to characterize stormwater over the course of a storm event in order to identify peak contaminant concentrations and the duration of the water quality impacts.  To accomplish this, again in partnership with Burlington Eco Info, we installed an automated water sampler (ISCO model 6712 sampler, model 4230 flowmeter, and YSI 600R sonde) at the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory and connected it to the College Street storm drain, which flows just outside.  In addition to collecting stormwater samples, the autosampler also measures water level, temperature and conductivity in the drain.  These data are updated hourly and transmitted to the Burlington Eco Info web page for real time observation of storm drain activity.