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Ozark Waters 
Volume XIV, Issue 09
  March 2, 2020
In This Issue

 

 

 

Get pumped!

Call 417-739-4100

for septic pumping

in SW Missouri! 

 

  Shoreline Cleanups
(Click for more info)

 
 
Click HERE to Visit Ozarks Water Watch Website to find: 
 
  • Current Events
  • Newsletter Archives
  • Projects Updates
  • Water Quality Info
  • Maps
  • Links
  • Pictures & Videos
 
 
   
Love your stream? Be a volunteer monitor!
 
Ronna Haxby, MO Projects Director, Ozarks Water Watch
 
Do you care about water quality? Do you like to get out into streams? Are you curious about what kind of critters live in the streambed and want to learn how to identify them and what that means about water quality? Do you want to do something meaningful? Ozarks Water Watch (OWW) has the perfect project for you!


In 2012 OWW began organizing citizen volunteer teams to monitor the water quality in many of our major streams in Missouri and Arkansas. In Missouri we partner with Missouri Stream Team to train the volunteers. In Arkansas, the Projects Director, Angela Danovi organizes an annual volunteer training day followed up with at-the-site training.

All the sites are currently covered in Arkansas, but Missouri needs a few more volunteers. Volunteers are asked to go out to a specific, assigned stream site 4 times a year, between April 1st and October 15th, and do streamside monitoring. A water sample is always collected, frozen and picked up at the end of the year by scientists from the Missouri University to test for nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients are the key ingredient (along with sunshine and warm temperatures) responsible for algae growth in the water.


You will go out with other trained volunteers who have the expertise and equipment to monitor water chemistry and identify the various macroinvertebrates that live in the streambed. The type, diversity and quantity of these little critters can tell us a lot about the quality of the water.


Some, like mayflies, stoneflies and water pennies are very sensitive to their habitat while others, including aquatic worms, leeches and pouch snails can live in just about any body of water. Volunteers also do visual surveys and measure the streamflow (speed and volume of water).


This data is turned into MO Stream Team and used by OWW to publish the annual "Status of the Watershed" report. Once a volunteer reaches a certain level of training, the data is also valued by DNR and other city and state agencies.


If you are interested in learning more, contact Ronna at 417-739-5001. There is a Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring (VWQM) orientation meeting on March 13th in Springfield. This would be a perfect time to get started with your VWQM adventure! RSVP is required.

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Quote of the Week    
 
"The farther one gets into the wilderness,
the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."  
 
~ Theodore Roosevelt
  ________________________________________
 
Bye-bye mayfly: Can the burrowing mayfly's decline serve as a warning system for the health of our environment?
 
Virginia Tech Daily 
February 6, 2020

Mayflies have long been indicators of the ecological health of the lakes, rivers, and streams. The more mayflies present in water, the better the water quality. But scientists from Virginia Tech and the University of Notre Dame recently discovered that a particular species of - burrowing mayfly - had a population decrease of nearly 84 percent from 2015 to 2019. The measurements, using radar, took place during the annual insect emergence events at Lake Erie, when the transition of almost 88 billion insects moving from the waterways to the air marks one of world's largest annual insect emergence events.
 

Although it was previously impossible to analyze the emergence of the burrowing mayfly, researchers were finally able to do so by using meteorological radar data and new methods in tracking the presence of airborne creatures. By observing the swarms on a year-to-year basis, the data showed a shockingly simple trend: over the same timeframe and time of year, the mayfly swarms are growing smaller.

To read more, click: HERE 
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Citizen scientists may be an untapped resource for water quality improvement

Penn State News 
February 27, 2020
 
Raising awareness and offering technological tools to the thousands of citizens groups in the U.S. that monitor water quality might help community leaders tap these volunteers as a way to improve access to plentiful, clean water and possibly avoid water-related crises, according to a team of researchers.
 

The team studied the water quality monitoring practices of more than a dozen citizen groups and university and government organizations in Centre County, where Penn State's University Park campus is located. The 13 water groups the team studied included ClearWater Conservancy, Centre County Pennsylvania Senior Environmental Corps, and the Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited. 
 
To read more, click: HERE 
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'Peak phosphorus' is upon us, and sewage is valuable muck
 
Phys.org
February 20, 2020

A world without phosphorous is a world without life. But phosphorous is a finite resource, so researchers are recovering it from sewage. According to the online news agency ABC Nyheter in Norway, the phosphorous crisis is perhaps the least well-known emergency in the world today. The Norwegian research news website forskning.no says that many scientists are warning of a state of "peak phosphorus," comparable to the expression "peak oil."

The adoption of recycling and a circular economy are thus essential if we are to ensure that this vital element is not lost. This is where a research project called Recover comes in. With SINTEF as a research partner, collaborating with NTNU and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), this vital element can be recovered.
 
To read more, Click: HERE 
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Contact Info
OZARKS WATER WATCH                          MISSOURI OFFICE                                 ARKANSAS OFFICE

David Casaletto, President

Cathy Stepp, Executive Director                  PO Box 636, 11 Oak Drive                       1200 W. Walnut, Ste. 3405 

(417) 739-4100                                          Kimberling City, MO  65686                      Rogers, AR  72756

contact@ozarkswaterwatch.org