In this issue
Chamberlin School Rain Garden
Rain Garden Adopters
Water Quality Monitoring
Storm Chasers

Despite the drier-than-normal conditions, the Stream Team was busy this summer. Local residents spent sunny days collecting samples from area streams for a water quality monitoring project. Others built new rain gardens on public land or maintained existing ones. We've also been working hard to establish a water volume monitoring system in a Shelburne neighborhood's storm drain that feeds Munroe Brook. The data that we gather through these efforts informs where we focus our energy for clean-ups, buffer plantings, and urban low impact development installations. Check out the articles below to learn more about the exciting work that we've been engaged in this summer and what's planned for the coming months. As always, feel free to be in touch and let us know about water concerns in your own neighborhood so we can work together to solve problems.

Chamberlin School Absorbs the Storm: Phase II Rain Garden Goes in the Ground  With the help of their teacher, Christ Provost, some industrious South Burlington 4th graders put their muscles to work digging, hauling, dumping, leveling and planting to create this new rain garden at their school. Including the garden that they installed last fall, this school yard is now infiltrating all of the roof runoff from the front of the building. Way to go Chamberlin! Know another school that could use a rain garden? Let us know - we love getting kids involved in protecting our waterways.

Adopters Dig In  These hard-working kids from Wililston walked to the rain garden across the street from their school one September afternoon to weed, remove debris and prepare this garden for the cold weather. Seven of the nine public rain gardens in our area have been adopted by caring community members this season. Want to lend a hand? Rain garden adopters don't need any special skills to help out and the Stream Team provides all the necessary materials and training. This program provides an important community service and is a popular activity for civic groups, neighborhoods, families, school classes and friends. Visit ccstreamteam.org for a list of gardens still in need of a guardian or contact Becky Tharp at rebecca@winooskinrcd.org to learn more or sign up. 
 
Water, Water Everywhere: A Successful Water Quality Monitoring Run  This summer CCST volunteers collected the first round of baseline water quality data from six brooks in Chittenden County. Data was collected at a variety of sites along the Indian, Englesby, Potash, Centennial, Morehouse and Muddy Brooks. Samples were analyzed for chloride, phosphorus, nitrogen and turbidity throughout July, August and September at the VT DEC laboratory. Here are some preliminary findings:

• Chloride - Potash, Centennial and Indian Brook all had levels of chloride greater than what the VT Department of Health considers a contaminant amount in drinking water; 250 mg/L. According to the EPA, you can expect to see health and reproduction problems in aquatic organisms with this level of chloride in the water.   
• Phosphorus – The phosphorus criterion in the VT Water Quality Standards is 0.014 mg/l for the Burlington Bay area. Five of the six brooks sampled fell within this criterion. Muddy Brook, however, was above the acceptable range.
• Nitrogen – Except for Muddy Brook, the nitrogen concentrations of all brooks sampled were in the acceptable range of the VT Water Quality Standards, which is less than 2.0 mg/l.

Check out our website: ccstreamteam.org for complete results.

Please consider being a volunteer next summer by getting your feet wet and providing meaningful water quality data for Chittenden County!  We would like to extend a special thank you to the volunteers who collected all of the water quality data this summer – Tim Hess, Katherine Tabailloux, Anna Dirkse, Carla Van Hoy, Emily Ebert and Alex Marcucci.
 
Storm Chasers: Shelburne Neighborhood Monitors Storm Flow  Munroe Brook is an impaired waterway due to stormwater and the Stream Team is investigating where some of that runoff is coming from. Using flow monitoring devices and rainfall measurements, volunteers are gathering information about how much water runs out of their neighborhood after a storm. By installing low impact development practices - like rain barrels and rain gardens - these residents can reduce that volume and track it over time. In the Spring, we'll begin posting the gathered data to the Stream Team website. Stay tuned for more updates.