TLGV will be hosting two free training events for people interested in helping to document water quality in their Connecticut towns by sampling and identifying bugs that live in river and stream bottoms:

Friday, August 28, 2015
9 AM – noon
USDA Service Center
238 West Town Street
Norwich, CT

Saturday, August 29, 2015
9 AM – noon
Ashford Town Hall
5 Town Hall Road
Ashford, CT

“The River Bioassessment for Volunteers (RBV) program was developed by CT DEEP to train citizen scientist how to help document healthy streams,” says Jean Pillo, TLGV Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator. “We use bugs that live in the stream as water quality indicators because they are surrounded by the water most of the year. Certain bugs are more stressed by pollution than others. If we find those pollution-sensitive bugs in a brook, then we know a lot about that brook without any chemical analysis.”

The RBV process will help to gather important baseline information on the healthiest streams in our region. This information will be useful to municipalities during land use decision making. The CT DEEP also uses this volunteer data as part of its water quality assessment report to Congress when four or more “good” kinds of bugs are found in a stream.

“Our goal is to survey at least 20 streams this season. The process is a fun way to help get important information, and a way to meet other people that share your interest in a healthy environment,” says Pillo. Call Jean Pillo at (860) 928-4948 or email her at Jean.Pillo@ConserveCT.org if you have questions or to sign up for one of the workshops. TLGV will loan out the equipment needed to collect the samples.