Overview
The Citizen Stream Monitoring Program provides an opportunity for watershed residents to get personally involved in the Seven Mile Creek Watershed Project. Between April and September each year, volunteers record their observations—of rainfall amounts, stream clarity, and other indices—at locations around the watershed. This work gives participants some hands-on ownership of the project.

Each volunteer purchases a kit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency that includes a rain gage, transparency tube, and data sheets. The Brown Nicollet Cottonwood Water Quality Board covers half the cost of the materials so the cost to each volunteer is only $10. Observations are made weekly and after major rain events, and monitoring locations are assigned to be convenient for the volunteers, so the work does not represent a major time commitment.

The data that is collected is used to track and improve the water quality of Seven Mile Creek.

People interested participating the stream monitoring program should contact the Seven Mile Creek Watershed Project at (507) 934-4140 for more details.

For More Information
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Citizen Stream-Monitoring Program
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/csmp.html