The TRWA sponsored 2018 study of the threatened Diamondback Terrapin  (a brackish water turtle) are on the website under the “Protect and Restore” drop down menu at the top of our home page under “Turtle Conservation” and at this link.  Diamondback Terrapin populations occur along the southern part of the state including populations in Assonet Bay and Broad Cove.  Assonet Bay is a small, tidal inland bay surrounded by the shores of Freetown and Berkley and is part of the Taunton River Watershed.  A small freshwater river flows from Long Pond southwest into the Bay, which then connects with … Continue reading →

Our nitrate, total phosphorus and fecal coliform results for October are on the Monitoring Program Page of the website.  The October samples give us the information needed to calculate the 2018 averages for the water quality months of May through October that EPA uses in discharge permit limitation averaging (last column in the table).

Despite the fact that the summer of 2018 was hot and river flow usually low just before our sampling days in July (7/10) and August (8/7) there were rain events which temporarily increased river flow and dilution.  Our data reflects this in lower nitrate levels … Continue reading →

Please join us for the State of the Taunton Watershed Workshop: Building Partnerships for Progress on October 1, 2018, from 8:30 to 1:00 at Fall River Heritage State park.  Click here to see the draft program.

The September nitrate, total phosphorus and fecal coliform results have been added to our 2018 monitoring results summary spreadsheet and the Monitoring Results Page on the website.  We had rain before our sampling event which temporarily increased river flow.  We had the same thing happen before our July and August sampling events as well.  In the low gradient Taunton River (20 feet elevation change in 40 miles of river) summer storms increase river flow for several days until the river drops back to low flow conditions.

Despite the temporarily higher than usual river flow on our September 12th sampling date, … Continue reading →

The July nitrate, total phosphorus and fecal coliform bacteria monitoring results have been posted on the website under the Water Quality Monitoring tab at the top of the website home page.  The results continue to show high nitrate levels as in past sampling.  Total phosphorus levels were higher than July of 2016 and 2017.

Our monitoring continues to illustrate the importance of watershed wastewater treatment plants completing required upgrades to remove nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) as soon as possible as well as all watershed residents being careful to clean excess fertilizer off driveways or other hard surfaces after fertilizer application.  … Continue reading →

The June monitoring data is available at the website Water Quality Monitoring Program tab above. River flows were still high as evident from the difficulty our canoe trip participants had making their way under the old Plymouth St. Bridge on the Nemasket River. Water temperatures were generally a couple of degrees warmer than last month.

We again had 100% coverage of all sampling location which is a tribute to the dedication of our volunteers! Despite the high flows mentioned we measured 10 exceedances of our nitrate target of 0.4 mg/l throughout the watershed and 2 exceedances of out total phosphorus … Continue reading →

Great weather and participation in this years two day canoe kayak trip made for a fun time for all!

The group started from Oliver Mill Park on Saturday, June 9th traveled down the Nemasket River to the Taunton River and on to historic Camp Titicut in Bridgewater a former Native American campsite. Several families and participants camped overnight.

On Sunday the campers were joined by new arrivals for the second leg of the trip from … Continue reading →

Many thanks to all who helped bring the River Festival back to the Weir!

This past Sunday, the TRWA, with the help of the Taunton Cultural Council and the Taunton River Stewardship Council, the Weir Community once again celebrated the Taunton River with the Taunton River Festival at the Weir Waterfront Park.  Entertainment was provided by The Old Foggies, The Goat Roper Band, and the Silver City Dance Studio.  

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We had sample collection at 100% of sites again this May. Thank you to all the dedicated members of the TRWA Volunteer Monitoring Team!

The results look similar to April and May of 2016 and 2017 (past data on website) beginning to show some marginally high nitrate values on the main stem of the Taunton and lower Three Mile Rivers. Town River in Bridgewater spiked early this year to 0.9 mg/l (over twice our 0.4 mg/l target). In past years the Town River didn’t start to spike to high values until June or July. The Matfield River was high last … Continue reading →

The TRWA monitoring team sampled all 20 monitoring sites in April!  The team did a great job in its first outing of the 2018 sampling season braving cold weather and high river flows.

Extreme weather is the hallmark of climate change and we have seen wet winters and springs with more intense storms for at least the last three years.  On the flip side we have seen hotter dryer summers with droughts.

Our April data indicated high nitrate levels at a number of locations even though dilution of WWTP effluent is at its highest now with rivers near flood … Continue reading →