Other local rivers and streams are looking good, too, George May of Merrimack reports. Anyone who plays on the river should be grateful for the work of these volunteer testers, by the way….

Mr. May writes:

Although the weather may not have been perfect for the monitors, it is
better for the sampling data. Rain washes pollution off the river banks and
down storm drains and gives a better indication of possible problems with
the water quality.

The data over the past 12 years indicates a cleaning up of both rivers.
Generally the water quality on both rivers is good - at least for the
bacteria testing. There are other pollutants in both rivers that the program
does not test for however. The Souhegan has shown fairly high counts of lead
and phosphorus when tested in the past. The Merrimack is still recovering
from decades of dumping by factories along the shore. Creosote is still
leaking into the river upstream of Greeley Park.

E. coli bacteria counts showed a fairly clean Souhegan. Counts were slightly
elevated as the river passed through the downtowns of Wilton and Milford,
but they were still relatively low and generally acceptable. Counts higher
than 88 are considered unsafe for public swimming spots and these areas were
slightly higher than that, but they met the water quality standards for
these rivers.

The Merrimack River between Manchester and Tyngsborough came in with very
low E. coli bacteria counts. The highest number here was lower than the best
site tested on the Souhegan. This has been true for several years now. As
far as bacteria go, the Merrimack is almost always clean except after heavy
rainstorms. There were reports of a soapy discharge near the confluence with
Salmon Brook, but this did not show up in the tests performed by this
program.

Testing for E. coli and dissolved oxygen are performed in the labs at the
Milford, Nashua, and Merrimack wastewater treatment plants. Temperatures and
observations are done by the monitors in the field.

A number of the sites were not tested due to lack of volunteers to monitor
the sites. If anyone would like to adopt one of these sites, contact
karenmattor@gmail.com or georgemay@comcast.net. The next test will be done
on June 23.

E coli counts for NH portions of the Nashua River are also shown here. The
Nashua River Watershed Association monitors the entire length of the river
once a month during the summer.

Past test results are also shown on the SWA website at souheganriver.org

E-COLI MONITORING RESULTS FOR TESTS TAKEN ON JUNE 9, 2009

SOUHEGAN RIVER SITES:

1. Billy Ward Pond, Ashburnham NA
2. SoR  333  River Road above Water Loom Pond, New Ipswich  44
3. SoR  320  Highbridge, New Ipswich  63
4. SoR  309  Above Greenville Mill Pond, Greenville  44
5. SoR  296  Downtown Greenville upstream of WWTP  NA
6. SoR  291  Green Bridge off Rte 31 below Greenville WWTP  NA
7. SoR  218  Below the Horseshoe, Wilton   28
8. SoR  210  Downtown Wilton  99
9. SoR  201  Pine Valley Mill, West Milford    45
10. SoR  170  Behind Hayward Field, West Milford    105
11. SoR  155  Souhegan Valley Boys and Girls Club, Milford  117
12. SoR  146  Swing Bridge, Milford  NA
13. SoR  133  Riverside Cemetery, Milford    114
14. SoR  130  Behind Lorden Plaza, Milford  NA
15. SoR  122  Amherst Country Club  111
16. SoR  116  Amherst Conservation land Fairway Road, Amherst   112
17. SoR  095  Boston Post Road Canoeport, Amherst  96
18. SoR  057  Indian Ledges, Merrimack  44
19. SoR  034  Turkey Hill Bridge, Merrimack    69
20. SoR  005  West Chamberlain Rd, Merrimack  76

MERRIMACK RIVER SITES:

1. Mer  600  Above Amoskeag Dam, Manchester  8
2. Mer  590  Arms Park, Manchester  13
3. Mer  580  Upstream of Piscataquag River, Manchester    NA
4. Mer  570  Goffs Falls, Litchfield  NA
5. Mer  560  Depot Street, Merrimack   NA
6. Mer  550  Upstream of Souhegan River, Merrimack   NA
7. Mer  540  Thorntons Ferry, Merrimack  NA
8. Mer  530  Greeley Park, Nashua  14
9. Mer  520  Taylors Falls Bridge, Nashua  17
10. Mer  510  Sagamore Bridge, Hudson  19
11. Mer  500  Pheasant Lane Mall, Hudson    NA
12. Mer  490  Upstream of Tyngsboro Bridge  12

Flow on Upper Souhegan  was 61CFS and expected flow for that date is 65
Flow on Lower Souhegan  was 108CFS and historic flow for that date is 130
Flow on Merrimack was  2490 CFS and historic flow for that date is 3660CFS

NASHUA RIVER SITES TESTED MAY 9, 2009

1. Covered Bridge, Pepperell  24
2. Canoe Launch, Pepperell  72
3. Runnels Bridge, Hollis  39
4. Mine Falls Park, Nashua  55
5. Canal Street, Nashua  23

6. Nissitisit River/Lake Potanipo, Brookline  7