Water Quality

Water Quality Monitoring Program

2011 – Due to changes in funding, we are currently not doing the Spring and Fall sampling to support the Summer sampling run by New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES).

History
Our water quality monitoring program began in 2007, shortly after we became an official Surfrider Foundation Chapter.

To see the coastal beach annual reports for New Hampshire, visit this page on the Department of Environmental Services website:
NH Coastal Water Quality Reports

We learned that the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) only sampled our beaches during the Summer months (Memorial Day to Labor Day). However, as surfers, we recognized that people utilize the ocean year round and that surfers often were sickened by waters during the Fall and Spring rainfalls.

In order to compensate for the lack of data in the off-season, we volunteered to help out. With the assistance of NHDES, we were able to secure an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant that funds our training, equipment, and lab testing fees. To make this work, NH Surfrider provides the volunteer hours as well as some of the transport costs.

We sampled a total of eight locations along our coastline. Five stations located along North Beach in Hampton (The Wall) and three stations at Jenness State Beach in Rye. We chose these spots based on their frequency of use by surfers and other water enthusiasts.

We sampled during the months of September to November and again from March to May. Samples were taken once a week and sent to the NHDES lab for processing. In the spring of 2009, we added additional sampling periods during heavy rain events to determine if the bacterial load increases during these storms.

This program would not have been possible without the volunteers who dedicated significant time to this effort. Each season, we offered a volunteer internship (good for college credit) to one or two applicants. Usually, these positions were filled by students from the University of New Hampshire.

State of the Beach

For more information on the health of the ocean, waves and beaches, follow this link to the Surfrider Foundation ‘State of the Beach’ section.