May TRWA Water Quality Monitoring Data Available

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The water quality monitoring results for May are available. Click the link here or visit our Monitoring Tab at the top of the TRWA home page and click on either the sample bottles picture or the link further down the page under Documents.
 
In May, as show on the Bridgewater USGS River Flow Gage the month started with a relatively low river flow of only 274 cubic feet per second (cfs) on Friday 5/9, this was followed by a large storm Saturday 5/10 which by Sunday 5/11 brought river flow up to 947 cfs. We sampled on Tuesday 5/13 as river low was dropping to 578 cfs. By 5/22 river flow had dropped back to 278 cfs however later that day and through much of the next day we had a large rainstorm which has brought the river up to over 2000 cfs . Rainstorm timing and river flow are important elements to interpreting our results.
 
The results for May look generally good, except for five bacteria violations (greater than 80 CFU/100 ml) downstream of urban areas. We used to be concerned about the wastewater treatment plant discharges during summer low flow, however now that the five upriver plants have been upgraded this should be a smaller concern. The river had ample flow at almost 600 cfs to dilute the wastewater treatment plant effluents. The more pressing concern today is pollution in urban stormwater runoff. When we sampled in May we were 2 days after the storm which greatly raised river flow. As a consequence, we missed the most polluted first flush of stormwater runoff. Nevertheless, we measured bacteria water quality criteria violations downstream of urban areas.
 
Our next sampling day is Tuesday, June 10th. We will be watching how quickly river flow decreases from the high flow we saw after the 5/23 rainstorm and if there is significant rain a short time prior to our sampling day, which generates a pulse of stormwater pollution.
 

April 2025 TRWA Water Quality Monitoring Results Available

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The TRWA water quality monitoring results for April are available. The results may be found on our website here and at the Water Quality Monitoring Tab by clicking on the sample bottles picture or the link further down the page under Documents.
 
As evident in the nightly news, global warming is affecting the world’s weather. In the western United States, we see drought and wildfires. In the Gulf states, we see rapidly intensifying hurricanes due to the warmth of Gulf waters. We are seeing an unprecedented number of tornadoes and floods in the south and mid-section of the country. Warm air holds much more moisture than cool air, so when the warm air picks up moisture from warmer than historical ocean waters it carries a lot of moisture with it until it encounters cooler air coming down from the north, setting up a battle of the air masses along a front. This results in violent weather, tornadoes and flooding like we have recently seen along the Mississippi River.
 
In New England, Massachusetts and the Taunton watershed, global warming has changed our weather pattern as well, however, not as dramatically as many other parts of the country. Our new weather pattern has more intense but relatively short duration rainstorms in winter through early spring, followed by hot summers and drought punctuated by very short duration intense rainstorms. Short duration summer rainstorms give the rivers in the watershed a dose of polluted stormwater runoff (which we measure as high bacteria with spikes in phosphorus and nitrogen). These summer short intense rainstorms are not sufficient to restore the groundwater level needed to supply summer river flow between storms, resulting in low river flow.
 
TRWA’s sampling team is measuring how these changes affect the water quality of the rivers in our watershed each month. The information collected underscores the need for action to mitigate the impacts of our new climate and river flow regime. These measures include conserving water and encouraging rainwater to go back into the ground rather than running off quickly.
 
In April, we sampled shortly after a small rainstorm, so river flow measured at the USGS Gage in Bridgewater was moderately high at 675 cubic feet per second (cfs). The results for total nitrogen downstream of the Brockton WWTP were higher than we would like to see, however their total nitrogen effluent limitation is seasonal from May 1 to October 31, so this is not unexpected. The total phosphorus levels measured looked ok. Bacteria (enterococci) had a significant number of state water quality criteria exceedances, likely due to urban stormwater runoff.
 
 

Congressman Jake Auchincloss Visits TRWA

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On Thursday February 20, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, Massachusetts’s 4th Congressional District visited the Watershed Center at Sweets Knoll State Park to learn more about what the Taunton River Stewardship Council (TRSC) and the Taunton River Watershed Alliance (TRWA) are doing to continue making strides in challenging times for the environment and environmental organizations. 

Congressman Auchincloss was accompanied by state and local leaders interested in our work protecting the environment of southeastern Massachusetts including: From left to right in photo, Tom Ferry, Dighton Public Works; Bill Napolitano, TRWA and TRSC Board Member; State Representative Justin Thurber, Fifth Bristol District; State Senator Kelly Dooner, 1st Plymouth and Bristol District; Congressman Jake Auchincloss; Joe Callahan, TRWA president and TRSC Board;  Zachary Caron, Dighton Zoning Board of Appeals; Steve Silva, TRWA Secretary, Water Quality Monitoring and Advocacy Coordinator; Peter Caron, Dighton Board of Selectmen. Photo taken by Catarina Pereira, Senior District and Constituent Services Representative for Congressman Auchincloss.

Joe Callahan TRWA President welcomed the group to the Watershed Center, and briefly described the work of TRWA’s Bruce Spooner Education Center, water quality monitoring and diamondback terrapin population monitoring and protection effort and advocacy programs. Joe described our annual sponsorship of the Taunton River Festival at Riverfront Park scheduled for Sunday, June 8th this year. We encouraged folks to attend. Joe described how we work closely with the TRSC and National Park Service Wild & Scenic Rivers program.

Congressman Jake Auchincloss said that despite the problems in Washington, the Congressman pledged to fight for the environment and support the Wild & Scenic Rivers program and their important work as he has done in the past. He recognizes the excellent and essential work the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and organizations like TRWA have done to improve the environment and the quality of life for Americans. He will do all he can to preserve the EPA and to protect the environment from those who would destroy it.

Bill Napolitano described how the TRSC is managed in partnership with the communities bordering the Taunton River. He gave examples of how small grants to communities and nonprofits by TRSC leveraged large amounts of money to remove obsolete dams, purchase land for conservation and promote many other beneficial projects in the watershed. Bill mentioned to those convened the outstanding support that we’d received over the years from Reps. Doherty, Haddad, and Orrall, as well as Sens. Pacheco and Rodrigues, and that both Thurber and Dooner now had an opportunity to be a part of that supportive community. We also spoke of the great support from Barney Frank, Joe Kennedy, Jim McGovern, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Joe Maokley, and others, as well as our colleagues at the National Park Service.

Steve Silva described our 30 dedicated water quality sampling volunteers who sample 20 locations in the watershed monthly from April through October. Both Steve and Bill spoke about the great improvement in Taunton River water quality brought about by EPA and the Clean Water Act working in conjunction with river advocates like TRWA. The river has gone from a toxic dangerous eyesore to a community asset supporting recreation, fish and wildlife.

Steve mentioned that he saw similar river and harbor success stories throughout New England during his 40 years managing water programs for EPA New England before retiring and joining TRWA. As an example, he mentioned Boston Harbor infamously known as the dirtiest harbor in the nation in the early 1970s, remember the “Love That Dirty Water” song by the Standells in 1966. Boston now has the cleanest urban harbor in the country acting as a major economic and tourism driver with eel grass and scallop beds growing in the waters adjacent to Logan Airport. Also mentioned was the improvement in Mount Hope Bay’s ecological health and productivity following 10 years of litigation by EPA against Dominion Power with TRWA support to require the company to reduce water discharge heat levels.

We can’t rest on our laurels, however, as polluted stormwater runoff from urbanization, and global warming intensified rainfall and drought along with rising sea level present new challenges.

We thank all of our visitors for joining us.

Staying in touch with your elected officials to keep track of what bills they are supporting, let them know about your concerns or thank them for their environmental support is very important in these times.

For your state legislators go here:

https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator

The members of the state Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources:

https://malegislature.gov/Committees/Detail/J21

This will give you a list of federal, state and local officials and contact information if you provide you complete location information:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/“

October Monitoring Results Available, End of 2024 Sampling Year

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The monitoring results for October are available on our monitoring results tracking spreadsheet. The monitoring results have also been added to our website 2024 sampling season spreadsheet. The results may be accessed anytime from the Water Quality Monitoring Tab at the top of the TRWA website home page and clicking on either the sample bottle picture or link to the data under the Documents heading. These are the last monthly results of the 2024 (April through October) sampling season.
 
The results again show high levels of nitrate downstream of the Brockton WWTP (Matfield River 0.79 mg/l and upper Taunton River at Cherry St. in Bridgewater 0.79 mg/l, double what we would like to see but half of last month so an improvement). This illustrates the importance of river water dilution as shown on page 4 of our spreadsheet. Stream flow measured by the USGS gauge in October was double what it was in September so nitrate concentration was reduced by half by this higher river flow. We put the streamflow, the sampling date and flow trend at the top of the fourth page of our results spreadsheets because this and the flow record from the USGS Bridgewater gauge help us interpret our results. The other important results useful in interpreting our data are the water temperature measurements on our separate DO, pH and water temperature spreadsheet. Warmer water encourages bacteria criteria violations and algae growth.
 
Total phosphorus (TP) levels were fairly good considering the relatively low dilution indicating that the WWTPs did well with TP removal. Even Bridgewater, which has not achieved final TP limitations, did well enough for the Town River to meet criteria. As mentioned last month, lack of rain for much of the sampling season means stormwater did not contribute major amounts of TP to the watershed’s rivers most of the time in September and October.
 
General lack of rain and stormwater runoff along with temperatures lower than summer caused bacteria levels to be relatively low in October. The higher values we detected are likely from a short rain event that occured the evening before we sampled.
 
As mentioned last month, global warming is changing the planet’s weather. We see record warm water in the Gulf of Mexico supercharging hurricanes, droughts in the west and Canada creating epic fires, widespread flooding and tornadoes in the south and midwest. For us in New England we see spring flooding followed by atypical dry or wet summers with short duration more intense rainstorms when they do occur impacting stormwater Best Management Practice effectiveness. We need to plan and implement actions for climate resilience. TRWA’s volunteer monitoring program is helping inform what we need to do.

September Monitoring Results, and TRWA Program on Climate Change

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The monitoring results for September have been added to our 2024 sampling season spreadsheet. All TRWA monitoring results may be accessed anytime from the Water Quality Monitoring Tab at the top of the TRWA website home page and clicking on either the sample bottle picture or link to the data under the Documents heading.
 
The results show high levels of nitrate downstream of the Brockton WWTP (Matfield River 1.66 mg/l and upper Taunton River at Cherry St. in Bridgewater 1.99 mg/l, over 4 times what we would like to see). This suggests that the Brockton WWTP plant may not have attained full operation of its nitrogen removal facilities. It also reflects very low available stream dilution (63 cubic feet per second (cfs) in September vs 193 cfs in August and 2,760 cfs in March). Since June when river flow fell below 400 cfs Matfield River nitrogen has been higher than we would like to see. We put the streamflow, the sampling date and flow trend at the top of the fourth page of our results spreadsheets because this and the flow record from the USGS Bridgewater gauge help us interpret our results. The other important results useful in interpreting our data are the water temperature measurements on our separate DO, pH and water temperature spreadsheet. Warmer water encourages bacteria criteria violations and algae growth.
 
Total phosphorus (TP) levels are good considering the low dilution indicating that the WWTPs with the major exception of Bridgewater WWTP did well with TP removal. The Town of Bridgewater was able to negotiate a schedule until 5/01/2027 for TP removal. In September TP in the Town River below the Bridgewater WWTP was 0.247 mg/l or 2.5 times what we would like to see to prevent algae blooms. Given the 4 million dollars spent to remove the Town River dam in order to restore fish passage to the upper river watershed and Lake Nippenicket, it is indeed unfortunate that the river will remain phosphorus polluted for 2 more years. Lack of rain for much of the sampling season means stormwater did not contribute major amounts of TP to the watershed’s rivers in September.
 
Lack of rain and stormwater runoff along with temperatures 4 to 6 C degrees cooler than August caused bacteria levels to be relatively low in September. The high value at Church Street, in Raynham about half way down the 40 mile Taunton River main stem is most likely from geese who have been observed sitting in the middle of the main channel feeding in the sediment because of the extremely low river flow.
 
In addition to our monitoring and USGS flow gauging, the other very important tool for evaluating Taunton River watershed health are the two MassDEP continuous monitoring buoys in Mount Hope Bay at the mouth of the Cole River (RI border) and in the central bay just south of the Braga Bridge, shown as gray teardrops on our Google map of monitoring locations on our website. If you click on either teardrop it says what they monitor continuously (every 15 minutes) at 1 meter depth from the surface and 0.5 meter from the bottom (DO, nitrate, chlorophyll-a, blue green algae and temperature). Because they monitor DO at depth rather than at the surface like we do these results are important for evaluation of the health of the bay.
 
In 2017 and 2018 and more recently in 2021 and 2022 these two sites recorded low DO for weeks at a time concurrent with high chlorophyll-a during the summer monitoring season. This long term low DO concurrent with high chlorophyll-a (algae) demonstrates the need for Taunton (almost done with construction finishing up now), Somerset (TN removal required by 6/01/2030) and Fall River (permit reissuance on hold) to remove nitrogen which causes the algae blooms which lower DO and impair the health of aquatic life. When this monitoring indicates that DO meets water quality standards SA 6.0 mg/l at the mouth of the Cole River and SB 5.0 mg/l south of the Braga Bridge concurrent with algae levels in a healthy range, chlorophyll-a 3-5 ug/l we will achieve water quality standards for Mount Hope Bay. As global warming causes ocean and Mount Hope Bay water temperature to rise it is important to lower nutrient levels (nitrogen and phosphorus) to meet DO levels needed for aquatic life.
 
Whether it is record warm water in the Gulf of Mexico supercharging hurricanes, droughts in the west and Canada creating epic fires, flooding and tornadoes in the south and midwest or New England weather changes consisting of warmer waters, higher tides, spring flooding followed by atypical dry or wet summers with more intense rainstorms when the do occur impacting stormwater Best Management Practice effectiveness. We need to plan for climate resilience. TRWA encourages you to come to our Regional Climate Change Impacts- Panel Discussion (9/28) at Bristol County Agricultural School (Bristol Aggie) in Berkley so you can question and hear from the experts. If you can’t make this program we will be having additional future programs on climate change and how to make our watershed more resilient to global warming.
 

August Sampling Results

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The monitoring results for August are available on our monitoring results tracking spreadsheet. The monitoring results have also been added to our website 2024 sampling season spreadsheet. The results may be accessed from the Water Quality Monitoring Tab at the top of the TRWA website home page and clicking on either the sample bottle picture or link to the data under the Documents heading.
 
The results again show high levels of nitrate downstream of the Brockton WWTP (Matfield River 0.85 mg/l and Taunton River at Cherry St. in Bridgewater 1.04 mg/l, not as high as last month but double what we would like to see). This suggests that the Brockton WWTP plant may not have attained full operation of its nitrogen removal facilities. It also reflects lower available stream dilution (193 cubic feet per second (cfs) in August vs 351 cfs in June). The Town River below the Bridgewater WWTP had a similarly high nitrate level of 0.78 mg/l.
 
Total phosphorus (TP) levels are elevated in some locations like last month due to lower dilution, however, the instream levels benefited from low rainfall which contributed less TP containing stormwater to the rivers. TP measured in the Town River at Haywood St below Bridgewater WWTP was high again at 0.166 mg/l because Bridgewater negotiated a 10 year schedule until 5/01/2027 for installation of TP removal facilities. Fortunately the Bridgewater Clean Water Act permit schedule for total nitrogen was only for 5 years (completion required 5/01/2022). These levels of phosphorus are high enough to stimulate algae and weed growth in fresh waters.
 
The number of bacteria water quality criteria violations was similar to last month. River temperature was cooler which reduces bacteria levels while flow was slightly higher from a small rainstorm a few days prior which tends to increase bacteria levels due to bacteria in stormwater runoff. This follows a similar pattern from last year’s results.
 

As our sampling moves through September and October we will be watching how river water temperature currently around 20 degrees C and stormwater runoff affect bacteria (and TP) levels. Our data last year and this year indicates that municipalities, commercial properties, state and EPA need to do a better job of stormwater management to keep bacteria levels in our rivers safe. More intense rainfall rates associated with climate change make addressing this problem critical.

July Water Quality Monitoring Results

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The monitoring results for July have been added to our 2024 sampling season spreadsheet. The results may be accessed from the Water Quality Monitoring Tab at the top of the TRWA website home page and clicking on either the sample bottle picture or link to the data under the Documents heading.

The results show high levels of nitrate downstream of the Brockton WWTP (Matfield River 1.66 mg/l and Taunton River at Cherry St. in Bridgewater 1.32 mg/l, almost double last month)! This suggests that the Brockton WWTP plant may not have attained full operation of its nitrogen removal facilities. It also reflects lower available stream dilution (351 cubic feet per second (cfs) in June vs only 165 cfs in July). The Town River below the Bridgewater WWTP had a similarly high nitrate level of 1.48 mg/l potentially indicating a combination of reduced removal efficiency and certainly lower effluent dilution.

Total phosphorus (TP) levels are elevated in some locations like last month due to lower dilution, however, the instream levels benefited from low rainfall which contributed less TP containing stormwater to the rivers. TP measured at in the Town River at Haywood St below Bridgewater WWTP was high again at 0.149 mg/l because Bridgewater negotiated a 10 year schedule until 5/01/2027 for installation of TP removal facilities. Fortunately the Bridgewater Clean Water Act permit schedule for total nitrogen was only for 5 years (completion required 5/01/2022). These levels of phosphorus are high enough to stimulate algae and weed growth in fresh waters.

The number of bacteria water quality criteria violations increased from last month due to warmer waters and lower river flow. This follows a similar pattern from last year’s results. It is almost certain that the bacteria violations would have been worse except for the fact that the last significant rain storms prior to our sampling were at the end of May when river flow at the Bridgewater USGS gauge was 1080 cubic feet per second (cfs) except for a small storm on 6/27 (river flow 400 cfs). In July for the 11 days prior to our sampling river flow steadily decreased from 400 cfs to 165 cfs. Last year we saw that stormwater discharges associated with significant summer rain storms deliver high levels of bacteria to our rivers. The absence of stormwater discharges in the 11 days prior to our sampling date kept the magnitude of bacteria violations measured in July down.

As our sampling moves through the season we will be watching how river water temperature currently 21 to 24 degrees C and stormwater runoff affect bacteria (and TP) levels. Our data last year indicated that municipalities, commercial properties, state and EPA need to do a better job of stormwater management to keep bacteria levels in our rivers safe. More intense rainfall rates associated with climate change make addressing this problem critical.

TRWA wants to thank our 29 dedicated water quality sampling volunteers for their great work! We couldn’t understand what is happening in our rivers or advocate effectively for the changes needed to protect our waters without their support!

June Monitoring Results

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The monitoring results for June have been added to our 2024 sampling season spreadsheet. The results may be accessed from the Water Quality Monitoring Tab at the top of the TRWA website home page and clicking on either the sample bottle picture or link to the data under the Documents heading.

The results show high levels of nitrate downstream of the Brockton WWTP (Matfield River 0.9 mg/l and Cherry St. in Bridgewater 0.8 mg/l). This suggests that the Brockton WWTP plant has not attained full operation of its nitrogen removal facilities yet. Total phosphorus levels are showing an increase with decreasing river flow (Cherry St below Brockton WWTP 0.103 mg/l, and Haywood St below Bridgewater WWTP 0.136 mg/l. These levels of phosphorus are high enough to stimulate algae and weed growth in the fresh waters in these areas.

The number of bacteria water quality criteria violations increased from last month due to warmer waters and lower river flow. This follows a similar pattern from last year’s results. It is almost certain however that the bacteria violations would have been worse except for the fact that the last significant rain storms prior to our sampling were at the end of May when river flow at the Bridgewater USGS gauge was 1080 cubic feet per second (cfs). For the 11 days prior to our sampling river flow steadily decreased from 1080 to 350 cfs. Last year we saw that stormwater discharges associated with significant summer rain storms deliver high levels of bacteria to our rivers. The absence of stormwater discharges in the 10 days prior to our sampling date kept the magnitude of bacteria violations measured in June down.

As our sampling moves through the season we will be watching how river water temperature (20 to 22 degrees C last summer) and stormwater runoff affect bacteria levels. Our data last year indicated that municipalities, commercial properties, state and EPA need to do a better job of stormwater management to keep bacteria levels in our rivers safe. More intense rainfall rates associated with climate change make addressing this problem critical.

May Monitoring Data Available

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The May monitoring monitoring results are on the website, click on the Water Quality Monitoring program tab from the top of the home page and either the sample bottles picture or link to our monitoring data page under “Documents”.
 
The results show a few high nitrate levels downstream of the Brockton WWTP (Matfield and Upper Taunton Rivers) which may reflect that the plant has not attained full operation of its nitrogen removal facilities yet. Total phosphorus was OK. The number of bacteria water quality criteria violations increased from last month following a similar pattern from last year’s results.
 
Last summer the number of bacteria violations was high. The pattern followed higher water temperatures and intense summer rainstorms. In April this year the water temperature was 7 to 10 degrees C. In May the temperature climbed to 14 to 15 degrees C. Large rainstorms this Spring generated periodic high stormwater runoff as reflected in the Taunton River stream flow measurements by the USGS stream flow gauge in Bridgewater.
 
As our sampling moves through the season we will be watching how river water temperature (20 to 22 degrees C last summer) and stormwater runoff affect bacteria levels. Our data last year indicated that municipalities, commercial properties, state and EPA need to do a much better job of stormwater management to keep bacteria levels in our rivers safe. More intense rainfall rates associated with climate change make addressing the problem critical.
 

April Monitoring Results Available

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The water quality monitoring results for last month (April 2024) are on the website.

The flow in the river at the Bridgewater USGS gauge was very high 1690 cubic feet per second (cfs) on the day we sampled, this is 3.6 times the April flow last year when we sampled which was already a typical high spring flow.

Because of the high flow and cold river temperatures we didn’t see many water quality standards violations. We measured a high nitrate value at the small Chuckamuckett Brook in Berkley likely from farm runoff and an elevated level in the Matfield River likely because Brockton hasn’t started full nitrogen removal yet (required in May by their Clean Water Act discharge permit). We saw three bacteria violations typically caused by stormwater runoff but not the extremely high values we measured in June to October last year. We also saw five pH values below 4.0 which may have been from low pH rainfall. We will be watching again this year to see if bacteria violations due to stormwater runoff increase dramatically like last year during the summer from June through October.

We want to thank our dedicated sampling program volunteers and our partners at Veolia Taunton Wastewater Treatment Plant for a smooth start to the sampling season.