Recapping Water Quality Monitoring Efforts

COA's Swarna collects a water sample for testing

The Water Quality Team was busy during the cold, blustery winter of 2024 with different programs and
activities to monitor and improve the health of local waterways in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, New Jersey. Here are some notable moments from 2024 so far:

• COA staff conducted road salt monitoring of eight upstream sites in the Two Rivers watershed to investigate the impacts of deicing applications.

• Community scientist volunteers and COA staff continued to collect weekly/biweekly data for ambient monitoring, which is being used to assess and track down sources of bacteria.

• COA conducted a community scientist training session in January and recruited new volunteers.

• COA also hosted the first Rally for the Two Rivers public meeting in February 2024 in a hybrid format where COA and NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) presented the results of the monitoring and track down efforts to date. The meeting also featured presentations from alliance partners.

• Additionally, in the ongoing source track down effort under the NJDEP-funded Rally for Barnegat Bay, wet weather monitoring of select upstream sites were completed successfully for the Boroughs of Island Heights and Ocean Gate under the mini grants awarded to these Boroughs to investigate stormwater infrastructure. This ongoing ambient monitoring is critical to meet the “Find-it, Fix-it" goal to restore the waterways.

COA continues to seek and recruit more volunteers to serve as community scientists. For more information or how to get involved, please contact Programs@CleanOceanAction.org.