For the last two years, Lumen has participated in a statewide citizens’ water quality monitoring effort called WAV — Water Action Volunteers. The idea behind the program is to collect baseline data on surface water quality across the state to inform policy makers. Lumen — as part of its commitment to project-based and place-based learning — adopted two local sites to monitor each month from April through October. Numerous students have helped out in the last two years, learning why and how to measure dissolved oxygen, turbidity, stream flow and temperature, and to assess stream bank habitat and macroinvertebrate populations. This coming spring, we will offer a seminar devoted to local water quality issues.

Here are a few pictures of students in action…