Testing the waters, treading carefully

Ann McCaig drops river water into a bottle containing a nutrient media for E. coli bacteria. CRPA volunteers began taking water samples and culturing for E. coli bacteria last year. The data collected will supplement sampling by the Department of Environmental Quality and provide a baseline for monitoring the health of the Cowpasture River. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) SCOTCHTOWN DRAFT - The morning air is brisk and cool under the trees along the Cowpasture River as five members of the Cowpasture River Preservation Association set up to begin taking samples.

CRPA member Dave Peters passes out bags of homegrown shiitake mushrooms. Member Kent Ford has provided a bin of his home-baked ginger cookies. Along with the posters and displays, the goodies may not be the normal fare on a testing day, but this first testing of October marks World Water Monitoring Day for this pristine river in eastern Bath County and everyone is invited to participate.

World Water Monitoring Day is an "international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world" according to the website at www.worldwatermonitoringday.org. The event was originally held Oct. 18 but is now month-long beginning on Sept. 18 to accommodate some of the colder waters in the world.

The easy and fun and wet work of collecting the sample from the river takes only a couple of minutes. The real work begins on the river bank where the netted sample is sorted and the creatures counted. Each side of every leaf must be carefully inspected and no tiny rock left unturned. Ann McCaig (left) and Kent Ford work through the sample netted Monday morning near the bridge at Scotchtown Draft. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) The Water Environment Federation, the United States Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency and many other agencies, organizations and businesses support Water Monitoring Day. While the CRPA has a longstanding sampling and testing program, this year is its first participating in the international event.

River testing is not simply a dip and run process. CRPA volunteers conduct three kinds of testing at sites along the Cowpasture and Bullpasture rivers. The most complex and time consuming is monitoring benthic macroinvertebrate populations.

On a cool, sunny Monday morning, Dave Peters squats in the Cowpasture River taking its temperature. By monitoring the river on a regular basis, Peters and other members of the CRPA hope to make sure the pristine waters stay pure and clean and healthy. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) "CRPA currently monitors macroinvertebrates at seven sites along the river, with the goal of having each site monitored four times a year," said executive director Caroline Bott.

Macroinvertebrate monitoring requires at least two people and often takes a couple of hours to complete at each site. A fine net is used to capture a sample of the organisms visible to the naked eye (macro) lacking a backbone (invertebrate) living on the bottom of the river (benthic). One person, wearing gloves to protect hands from sharp rocks, glass and cold water, stirs the bottom for 20 seconds while a second person holds the net to capture everything that rushes downstream.

Healthy critters generally mean a healthy river. This stonefly larvae (left) and hellgrammite were netted Monday in the Cowpasture River as part of the ongoing testing of the river by members of the Cowpasture River Preservation Association. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) Kent Ford notes, "In winter time, 20 seconds gets longer and longer," - reason enough for the heavy gloves. His wife Ellen, holding the net Monday without gloves, remembers, "One time we had to tote them into the kitchen because I couldn't function anymore." Her fingers became too cold to separate the tiny creatures from the rocks and leaves. She was quick to note all the critters collected were returned to the stream.

After 20 seconds in the river, the net littered with creatures, leaves and gravel is taken ashore and the long process of sorting and counting begins. "Visible to the naked eye" doesn't mean big, although the occasional hellgrammite is not only easy to see but big enough to take a painful pinch. Each organism, many barely visible, is picked up with fingers, eye dropper or other tool and transferred to a plastic pan of river water.

"Gotcha," CRPA executive director Caroline Bott (left) and Ellen Ford seem to say as they pull up a net full of leaves, small gravel, sand and benthic macroinvertebrates - critters that live on the bottom of the river. CRPA members sample the river year around. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) The final step is sorting the creatures by type into labeled ice cube trays filled with river water. Once identified and counted, all the little animals are returned to the river.

Kent Ford said unlike testing for physical properties or bacteria, macroinvertebrate sampling gives an overall view of water quality over a long time frame. Many of the organisms sampled live in the river for months or longer and need good water quality over their entire life span to survive.

A single peak event of high or low bacteria or dissolved oxygen might be caught by other testing and not impact the macroinvertebrates. But chronic problems will show up in reduced diversity and quantity of the creatures, Ford said.

After a sample is netted from the river, the various macroinvertebrates are sorted and counted. Ice cube trays are labeled and filled with river water for sorting. After the count, all the little creatures are returned to the river. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) World Water Monitoring Day testing is limited to basic physical water parameters - temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH. An inexpensive test kit is available so citizens can be involved in the program. The kit contains enough materials for 50 tests and cost $20 including shipping and handling.

CRPA members use electronic equipment for testing physical characteristics. Meters for measuring pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen are calibrated at each site before each test. Then a volunteer wades into the river to a fast flowing section of the stream and takes a reading.

The data collected Monday will be submitted to the World Water Monitoring database and kept on file with the CRPA. Bott said the CRPA data is also provided to the Department of Environmental Quality.

Some of the physical characteristics can be critical to life in a stream or river. A minimum of 4 mg/l of DO is the standard set for most Virginia waters by DEQ. Stockable trout waters must have a minimum of 5 mg/l and natural trout waters have a minimum of 6 mg/l.

Since November 2006, CRPA members have been sampling the Cowpasture and Bullpasture for Escherichia coli bacteria, commonly referred to as E. coli. These bacteria are associated with the fecal waste of warmblooded animals. The state sets maximum levels for bacteria levels in the river for recreational use.

In 2004, DEQ placed two sections of the Cowpasture on its impaired waters list because of excessive levels of fecal coliform bacteria. The listing of the river as impaired effectively eliminated those sections from consideration as Tier III waters - the most pristine waters category in Virginia.

E. coli is one of the family of fecal coliform bacteria. Under new proposed standards, E. coli will be used for the bacteria water quality standard instead of the more generic fecal coliform, said Bott. In addition, the level of E. coli allowed will be raised.

With the new standards, the Cowpasture may be delisted, Bott said. If the river is delisted, the need for the long and expensive process of developing a Total Maximum Daily Load for the river and plan for meeting the limit will be eliminated.

The CRPA uses the Virginia Save Our Streams modified method to collect and count macroinvertebrates. The data is kept by the CRPA and also submitted to VASOS. Other volunteers test additional streams and rivers in Bath and Highland as part of the VASOS program.

Volunteer testing is an important addition to the limited testing done by DEQ, said Ford. DEQ no longer tests at the site on the Cowpasture that yielded the samples resulting in the delisting. Ford said because of limited budgets, DEQ was forced to rotate sites and testing frequencies.

The Cowpasture has been subject to more intensive testing by DEQ and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries over the past six months since diseased and dead fish were found in the river in April. Monitoring of fish and water testing continues as scientists search for what is causing the fish to be infected and killed.

A bacterium that has been in the river for decades has been found to be causing many of the lesions on the fish, according to DGIF fisheries biologist Paul Bugas. But as of last month, there is still no answer as to what is causing the fish to succumb, he said.

Ford said Monday bacteria sampling of the river has shown some significant spikes. However, while "everyone would like to find a correlation," so far the CRPA has not been able to show any specific relationship between the high E. coli counts and any other factor.

The one thing Ford noted is when the rates have been excessive in the Cowpasture, the high sample rates continue up stream into the Bullpasture River, suggesting part of the river system may contain the source. The CRPA recently added another testing site in Clover Creek in the hopes of narrowing down any possible source.

The chart of the E. coli counts for the past year distributed Monday shows six monthly samples above current DEQ standards. On the other hand, the number of bacteria colonies found is close to zero for many months.

Even if CRPA volunteers do not help solve the current fish kill mystery, Ford said the data will provide a "baseline" that will help protect the river long-term. With the frequent testing and knowledge of the organisms living in the river, it should be possible to see changes and fix problems to keep one of the most pristine rivers left in the east clean and healthy for people to enjoy and to provide clean water for cities downstream.