From Ryan O'Donnell
Water Quality Program Manager
Connecticut River Conservancy
The second monitoring day for the southeastern Vermont region was Wednesday, June 28th. Results are below.
Volunteers collected samples that were tested for E. coli bacteria. E. coli is a bacteria found in the guts of all warm- blooded animals, including humans and is used as an indicator to test water for fecal contamination. The EPA recommends against primary contact (fully immersing in the water, i.e. swimming) when there are more than 235 organisms/100 mL water. Bacteria levels are often elevated after heavy rains due to bacteria being carried into nearby rivers by runoff. Because of this, we note whether results are from wet or dry weather sampling events. There were extremely heavy rains for the two days leading up to the sampling event. There are mostly high bacteria counts across the region. Assuming it continues to not rain into the weekend, bacteria levels should come back down as flows return to normal at sites where results tend to be lower. Please use these and historic sampling results to help make informed decisions about when and where to recreate more safely. You can also reduce the risk of waterborne illness by avoiding getting water in your mouth, cover any open wounds, and washing hands before eating and drinking after recreating in natural waters. See these results and more from throughout the Connecticut River watershed at www.ctriver.org/isitclean Thank you for your interest and support in clean water in southeastern Vermont!