Susan Scott has been volunteering to collect water samples for the Buzzards Bay Coalition for five years.
At the end of this dock, Kingston performs an hour-and-a-half-long data collection routine — just as she has done 22 times a summer for the past two years. She and fellow volunteer Susan Scott are here to take measurements on oxygen, water temperature, salinity, and more. Scott, a 77-year-old retired arts administrator, rips open a reagent packet and adds it to a glass vial.
Kingston and Scott are among dozens of volunteers who take part in one of the longest-running water quality programs in the region. Their work helps scientists understand how much septic systems and lawn fertilizers are polluting Buzzards Bay with nitrogen. Excess nitrogen can cause toxic algae blooms and dangerously low oxygen levels that make it nearly impossible for marine life to survive. So, Kingston said, the work is meaningful to volunteers.
Huizenga crouched at the end of the pier and hauled up an algae-covered milk crate filled with scientific instruments. Forget the era of volunteers getting water quality data every five days. These loggers are collecting information every 10 minutes. They’re still pretty new, but they’ve already begun to show that dangerously low oxygen events have gone undetected as much as 40% of the time.Susan Scott and Lisa Kingston fill out a data sheet every time they collect water samples in Buzzards Bay.
The Buzzards Bay Coalition will spend the summer testing data loggers at 19 of the 200 volunteer stations around the bay.