Who lives in your rivers, streams?

Rivers, streams, and wetlands in Maine are classified as AA, A, B, or C depending on the goal for the waters use. AA is the highest class and C the lowest. All classifications meet the requirements of fishable, swimmable set by the Federal Clean Water Act. But do all the waters live up to their goal?
    The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Biomonitoring Program evaluates waters all around the state to see if they are meeting their class goal. They do this by monitoring the health of the populations of algae and macroinvertebrates (animals without backbones that can be seen with the naked eye) that live in the rivers, streams, and wetlands. These creatures live in the water most of their lives. By monitoring them, DEP knows what the water quality was like not just when they took the sample, but what it was last week and last month.
Many different types of macroinvertebrates and algae can be found. Some species require cold, clean water to survive and others tolerate polluted water. Finding a variety of the organisms that require clean water is good, meaning the water quality is good and any human activities in the watershed are having minimal effect. A community of mostly pollution-tolerant species indicates poor water quality.
Maine is a national leader in using biological data to better identify the health of water bodies. A statistical model based on the types and numbers of creatures collected has been developed that predicts whether a river or stream sample attains Class A, B, or C. New models for wetlands and algae data are being developed.
So how’s your neighborhood river, stream, or wetland doing? The Biomonitoring Program posts data to a DEP Web site to help you find out about your local waters. To find out more, visit our Web site www.MaineDEP.com. The Biomonitoring Program Web site includes link to helpful hints about biomonitoring data and uses Google Earth.
Look at the Web site to find out whether a river or stream is classified as AA/A, B, or C, and if it meets its class. For example, searching for “Guilford, Maine” reveals site S-84 on the Piscataquis River. Click on the red square representing the site to show a window with that information. To see all the data on the site click on the link in the bottom left corner. The interesting information about this site is its class attainment. In 1984 and 1985, it did not “attain class,” but after 1989 it does. Additional treatment of discharges to the river in the mid ‘80s resulted in improved water quality, and by 1989 it attained its water quality goal.
For more information, contact us at biome@maine.gov.
This column was submitted by Hannah Wilhelm, Maine Conservation Corps volunteer with the Biomonitoring Program at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). In Our Back Yard is a weekly column of the Maine DEP. E-mail your environmental questions to infodep@maine.gov or send them to In Our Back Yard, Maine DEP, 17 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333.