Water Quality Initiatives

The NBC maintains two seasonal real-time water quality stations in the Providence and Seekonk River estuaries as a part of the Narragansett bay Fixed-Site Monitoring Network.  Sensors at Phillipsdale Landing and Bullock Reach record temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, chlorophyll a, and other parameters every 15 minutes.

The NBC measures water quality profiles of the water column at several sites in the Providence and Seekonk River estuaries. The parameters collected including depth, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, fluorescence, and PAR.

The NBC employs state of the art equipment to automatically map surface water quality while their vessel, R/V Data Stream, is underway. Parameters mapped include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and chlorophyll a.

The NBC collects bi-weekly bacteria samples at twenty stations throughout the Upper Bay. All of the bacteria samples are analyzed for fecal coliform and a subset are analyzed for enterococci.

The NBC collects weekly river bacteria samples at twenty-four stations throughout the NBC service district. All of the bacteria samples are analyzed for fecal coliform and samples from a subset are analyzed for enterococci.

The NBC samples its receiving waters for various nutrient parameters twice per month. Analyzed parameters include nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, total dissolved nitrogen, total nitrogen, orthophosphate, and silicate. Samples collected in the Providence and Seekonk River estuaries are also analyzed for chlorophyll a.

The NBC measures water clarity at several locations in the Providence and Seekonk River estuaries. Water clarity parameters include Secchi disk and photosynthetically active radiation or PAR.

In 2014, the NBC began conducting video surveys of the benthic (bottom) conditions in the Providence River in order to make observations of potential changes in the environment as various water quality improvement initiatives take place in the Narragansett Bay watershed.

The NBC collects phytoplankton samples twice per month in the Providence River estuary, analyzing a whole-water sample for quantitative abundance data and a tow net sample for qualitative diversity data.