Ready, set, flag! Summer flagging has begun!

As Cait mentioned in the "P.P.S." of her water chestnut pulling blog post, flagging season has begun! On July 2nd, the official start date, Julie, CRWA's senior watershed scientist, went sampling with me and another intern, Saloni, to train us.

After gathering all of our equipment - a cooler, ice, the flagging box, life vests, extra life vests, a paddle, and gasoline - it was time to get on the water! Only, there was one more obstacle to pass before we could really begin - starting the boat! It's harder than one might think (in my opinion, the most difficult part of the entire flagging sampling - actually getting the boat into the water and starting it), but after a few pulls on the the motor we were off.

The sampling we do on the boat occurs twice a week for the CRWA summer water quality notification flagging program. According to CRWA's website, the program "presents the daily flag colors of the river's health, which signify whether or not the river is safe for boating at ten boating locations from Watertown to Boston. Flag colors are based on bacteria levels and blue-green algae counts. CRWA estimates bacteria levels using a model that takes into account a variety of environmental factors including antecedent rainfall and river flow. CRWA collects river samples for bacteria weekly to verify the model forecast. Blue-green algae monitoring is conducted at least every two weeks."

The samples we collect are analyzed by a lab for E.coli bacteria, and the results are input into the model mentioned in the description previously, which then outputs a flag color.

Last week, Saloni and I went out on our own for the first time. At 7am the Community Rowing boathouse, our starting point, was already crowded and bustling. Being careful not to cause too much wake with our motor boat for the crew teams and scullers we were sharing the river with (the slightest wave can interfere with their boats) we stopped at our four sampling sites - Longfellow bridge, the the Boston University bridge, the Larz Anderson bridge, and the North Beacon street bridge.

Our next challenge, after returning to the Community Rowing boathouse, was finding the lab to drop off the samples at. Julie had been with us the first week giving directions; however, with me driving and Saloni being a wonderful navigator we managed just fine, with the exception of getting stuck in morning traffic.

Have a great day!
- Ingrid