West and Rhode Riverkeeper

We work with our community to enforce environmental law, to
promote restoration, and to advocate for better environmental policy.
Contact us: 443-758-7797  ♦  PO Box 172, Shady Side, MD 20764

Water Quality Monitoring

West/Rhode Riverkeeper operates a volunteer water quality monitoring program during the underwater grass growing season (April – October). We sample weekly for important indicators of river health, such as dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, salinity, and water clarity. It is critical to monitor for water quality in order to accurately assess the condition of our rivers. We also monitor bacteria levels in the summer months.

Our program depends on the efforts of our wonderful volunteers. If you are interested in helping, please contact us at . We sample on Wednesday mornings.

Bacteria Data 

For information on our weekly bacteria monitoring program, click HERE.

Water Quality Data

serc_logo-01The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) maintains a continuous monitoring device on its dock in the Rhode River.

You can view the results here.

Our water quality data is collected by volunteers and the program is supervised by the West/Rhode Riverkeeper. The data is presented here. You can view it by clicking on one of the following links. (Each link will open a new window in your browser.)

  1. Graphical Display - Graphs of the weekly data
  2. Tabular Data - Data tabulated and displayed and downloadable in .txt format 
For questions about the data, please email .

 For realtime data on water quality throughout the Bay visit the Department of Natural Resources  Eyes on the Bay Website.  There you can get automated water quality measurements that are collected every 15 minutes.
 
www.westrhoderiverkeeper.org