The Narrow River Watch Program is a volunteer monitoring program that focuses on educating the public and providing information on the water quality status of the river.  The program emphasizes watershed-scale monitoring because the water quality of a given river or lake reflects the activities in the lands and waters that surround and lie upstream of it.

 

Because of coliform bacteria, the Narrow River is currently closed to shellfishing and is on the Rhode Island List of Impaired Waters. NRPA is working with the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the US Environmental Protection Agency to improve the water quality of the Narrow River.  The DEM report on the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is available. Individuals can help by using ideas from The Narrow River Handbook or by volunteering for the Narrow River Watch Program.

 

River Watch Volunteers are Needed -  River Watch Volunteers are Needed - Training of new volunteers occurs each spring so that they are able to participate in the May through October monitoring season. Volunteers are not expected to have special expertise or scientific experience. All training and equipment is supplied by URI's Watershed Watch staff. Additional details about volunteer monitoring can be found on the URI Watershed Watch webpage at <http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/ww/> or by calling (401) 874-4552 or by email at <uriww@etal.uri.edu>.

 

River Watch Database - A database that houses all data collected by River Watch volunteer monitors has been created. Since 1992, Narrow River volunteers have measured water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen every two weeks between May and October. Additionally they have taken water samples, which are processed for analysis of chlorophyll. Five times during the season the volunteers also collect water samples for analysis of nutrients and bacteria. At the end of each monitoring season, the URI Watershed Watch (WW) Office compiles and provides all of the data to NRPA. In turn, NRPA has loaded the data into an Access database. The Access database allows quick queries of specific parameters and the ability to extract multi-year data. The data is also available as Excel documents. Requests for access to the database can be directed to Annette DeSilva by contacting NRPA at nrpa@narrowriver.org