Students and their teachers monitor water quality in their local streams or river twice annually, once in October and once in March. They use titration kits to test for dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity. Students measure both the air and water temperature and many test for nitrates.

Most classes collect sterile samples for bacterial analysis. Students at local high school filter these samples, incubate them and count the fecal coliform colonies after 24 hours. These water quality parameters are important for aquantic organisms and/or have implications for human health.

Optimal Water Quality Standads

Click here to download a document about the Optimal Water Quality Standards students keep in mind when collecting data at thier adopted sites.

South Sound GREEN Water Quality Monitoring Sites

Each year over forty sites are monitored by about thirty different classrooms around Thurston county.

View South Sound GREEN WQM Sites in a larger map