Understanding the health and quality of our waters helps us recommend environmental policies and protections, educate the public about how to protect and restore clean water and the environment, and work to restore ailing habitats. Water monitoring and research is the foundation of The Watershed Institute’s efforts to protect streams and rivers in central New Jersey.
Since 1992, volunteers have assessed and documented water quality in the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed through our StreamWatch water quality monitoring program. StreamWatch measures the health of our water by testing water chemistry, measuring bacteria levels, and assessing the biological and physical health of our waterways. StreamWatch data helps The Watershed Institute better assess the impacts of pollution and land use on local streams and determine actions necessary to protect and improve water quality.
We use a number of parameters to determine water quality and stream health along our SteamWatch areas. These include tests for phosphorous, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, bacteria, ph, water temperature, turbidity, and aquatic life.
Click on the green box (below) and see how our watershed fares across the different parameters measured by StreamWatch from 2020- 2024. Sites have been assessed on a scale of “Excellent”, “Good”, “Fair”, or “Poor” for each parameter individually, then used to determine if each subwatershed meets or fails the applicable water quality standards.
Click here to check out our water quality assessment framework to see how we developed these scores.
Interested about our methods and data quality? Read through our documents below.
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