Waterway Stewardship Water Quality Wednesdays

Water Quality Wednesdays (WQW) in Patchogue is part of Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program’s initiative to provide community stewardship activities that support the health of our waterways and to increase public awareness of the threats to water quality including stormwater runoff. As part of WQW, community members work alongside Cornell Cooperative Extension specialists to monitor estuarine water quality. Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, water clarity, and chlorophyll-a are parameters that are measured. These parameters are measured along the Patchogue River as well as in Patchogue Bay to demonstrate the impacts our tributaries can have on our bays due to human impact in the watershed. Collected water quality data will be used to educate the community and to support actions to preserve and protect our waterways.

WQW station locations selected (8) for inclusion in the Monitoring Program
for western Patchogue Bay 

Get Involved

Thank you for your interest in our annual water quality monitoring program! By participating in this educational experience you will help us collect data and acquire biological information on the health of our bay and tributaries. This data will be collected using standardized procedures developed for the Unified Water Study (UWS)- Long Island Sound Embayment Research. Connecticut Fund for the Environment: Save the Sound designed the procedures, working in collaboration with science advisors, other monitoring groups, and regulatory agencies (EPA, CTDEEP, NYSDEC, NYCDEP, NEIWPCC-IEC). While WQW implements UWS procedures it is a separate program.

You will be helping to collect data on various water quality parameters at sunrise from June through September in Patchogue Bay. Participants can attend as many or as few events as they choose, however, due to limited space on our field vessel, we will only be accepting 3 participants per event on a first come first served basis. The Field Coordinator will be present to oversee implementation of monitoring protocols, however, it is required that you take the time to follow the instructions below to participate.

All participants MUST:

• Be at least 18 years of age.
• Complete the brief Volunteer Application Form Online (https://tinyurl.com/WQW2018)

Once the Volunteer Application Form is complete you will be contacted (through the email provided) to complete the following required paperwork:

• Risk Waiver
• Code of Conduct/Volunteer Agreement Form
• Photograph Use Permission Slip

Submit all paperwork to the Field Coordinator prior to the monitoring event.

• Please email completed signed paperwork to cs424@cornell.edu
• OR Please mail hard copies to: Carolyn Sukowski, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, PO Box 554, Huntington, NY 11743.
• OR paperwork can be completed at our office: Coindre Hall, 101 Browns Road, Huntington, NY 11743 (please contact cs424@cornell.edu to schedule a time).

Two weeks prior to the next upcoming monitoring event you will be emailed a registration link to sign up. Space is limited, so volunteer spots will be provided on a first come first serve basis. If there is space available you will be contacted by the Friday before the next monitoring week. You will not be contacted otherwise.

Monitoring occurs during select Wednesdays in Spring and Summer. You will receive the full schedule and paperwork forms after completing the Volunteer Application Form Online (https://tinyurl.com/WQW2018).

Partners:

Last updated June 3, 2021