Copy of Citizen Science. Water quality testing training. Our Dee Estuary

Aims and objectives: The objective is to have a community of volunteers regularly testing and reporting their observations of the quality of the water flowing from the very many streams and outfalls that flow directly into the Dee Estuary. The aim of the training is to train and equip you to be able to identify and assess suitable test locations, to safely take samples and undertake reliable testing, and for you to report those findings to add to the growing evidence to support water quality improvements from the headwaters of the Dee out to the open sea. The aim is to have a volunteer to regularly monitor every river, stream or outfall into the estuary.

Training contents: This training will look at two specific parameters: turbidity and phosphate concentrations. Together, these two parameters are very good indicators of water quality, or the presence of stuff that shouldn’t be present in that water. On their own, they can’t identify and diagnose problems, but they are very good first steps as the most common water quality problems will result in increased turbidity and elevated levels of phosphate. This could include agricultural or industrial runoff, issues with sewage treatment or misconnections in domestic drains. We will also discuss general observations of things you may encounter that could indicate a problem.

What happens to the results? All results will be uploaded to the Storymap hosted by the Welsh Dee Trust. This will serve as a permanent record of your results to chart changes over time. If your watercourse appears to be healthy, we can follow up later in the year by looking at the invertebrate life that it supports. This is the ultimate indicator of the health of your watercourse. If your results suggest that your watercourse might have a problem, we could investigate further upstream or test a wider range of parameters. If your watercourse appears to be very poorly, we can report your results to our partners in the Our Dee Estuary project who as the operators of infrastructure, or as regulators can investigate in much greater depth, and importantly, can undertake measures to improve it