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Rivers and Streams |
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Vermont's rivers and streams are popular among residents and tourists for swimming, canoeing, and kayaking. Several of Vermont's rivers and streams have been monitored for E. coli by volunteer groups in order to inform and educate people on the quality and health aspects of recreational waters in their local areas. Data has been acquired from local River Watch associations and is provided here as a service to the public and the River Watch groups. For all watersheds, samples were acquired during summer months by volunteers. The number of samples, number of sites, and sampling dates vary among watersheds. For some watersheds, the number of samples and number of sites varies from year to year. Watershed monitoring groups have different criteria and purposes which guide their selection of sites. Samples may be taken at different times of day and at different streamflow conditions. Since site selections are not necessarily based on a scientific sampling design (i.e. representative of the entire watershed), direct comparisons among watersheds is not valid. However, comparing general trends over the years is useful. An annual summary of watersheds shows the percentage of samples for each year in violation of the Vermont water quality standard for class B waters (E. coli greater than 77 organisms/100 ml). A map and summary data provide the locations, percent E. coli violations, sampling dates, number of sites, number of samples, and minimum and maximum values for individual watersheds. |
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