Seametrics Multi-Parameter Water Quality Loggers - NexSens

Case Studies

Monitoring Source Water to Optimize Water Treatment

Monitoring Source Water to Optimize Water Treatment

Monitoring Source Water to Optimize Water Treatment

Clean drinking water is necessary for all human life, and source water monitoring is the first step in the long process of converting source water into tap water. Millions of people rely on the work of analysts like Michele Gilkerson, a water research analyst with the City of Columbus Division of Water, to convert wastewater into potable water.Source water monitoring gives treatment plants insight into incoming water conditions, allowing them to begin taking the necessary measures to properly treat such water. Without data collected and analyzed by Gilkerson and her team, plants would be ill-prepared for poor water quality. In the case of nutrient-rich water loads, specific technology is required to treat the water in addition to the treatment plant’s usual procedures. Challenge: Meeting Safe Drinking Water Act Standards For example, a nitrate event that goes improperly treated can be the beginning of a taste and odor event—wherein the water may meet Safe Drinking Water Act standards but tastes or smells strange to the average consumer. While not always an indicator of safety, making sure drinking water meets expectations is important to protecting the relationship between the division and the public who rely on them for water.

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Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring

Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring

Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring

When the Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River were connected by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the 1880s, the region underwent a variety of environmental changes. While water control locks were installed in the 1930s and 1960s, the Sanibel area in Southwest Florida still suffered from deteriorating water quality due to runoff and pollution occurring up the river and surrounding watershed.Incoming nutrient loading caused massive algae drift/stranding events in 2005-2006, according to AJ Martignette, the Laboratory Manager with Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF). The water quality shifts also led to the increased frequency and severity of red tides as well as large salinity swings affecting sea grasses in the estuary and freshwater grasses in the river.In order to mitigate some of the damages, the SCCF stepped in to help develop a monitoring program that would help inform the USACE and the South Florida Water Management District when to release water and when to close off the connection between the lake and river. In 2007, what is now referred to as the River, Estuary and Coastal Observing Network, or simply RECON was created. Made up of 11 monitoring sites, the network tracks weather and water quality across Southwest Florida in order to ensure the residents can continue to rely on the aquatic system. Challenge: Environmental Conditions in Southwest Florida

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Protecting Lake Lillinonah through Monitoring and Advocacy

Protecting Lake Lillinonah through Monitoring and Advocacy

Protecting Lake Lillinonah through Monitoring and Advocacy

Lake associations and individual researchers teaming up means more comprehensive and impactful monitoring programs. Lake Lillinonah in Connecticut has the benefit of being the subject of many researchers' work as well as being under the protection of Friends of the Lake (FOTL).Jen Klug, Professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University, is one of these researchers and works with FOTL to better understand what conditions threaten Lake Lillinonah—a mission shared by FOTL. Challenge: Nutrient Loading and High Production in Lake Lillinonah Lake Lillinonah is in particular need of protection due to excess nutrient loads leading to hypoxia and algal blooms. The goal behind monitoring the lake is to help provide the FOTL with water quality data to help support their advocacy.

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