Buzzards Bay Stormwater Collaborative: Monitoring Discharges

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Since 2016, the Buzzards Bay NEP has been working with municipalities participating in the Buzzards Bay Stormwater Collaborative to map stormwater networks, and monitor stormwater discharges to Buzzards Bay and surrounding streams and wetlands. This page provides links to videos and documents to assist in the gathering of information and data to support the program.

NEW: Buzzards Bay IDDE Investigations Trailer and Monitoring Video Series

An important part of the Stormwater Collaborative is for the partners to combine resources in a cost-effective way to meet local goals of improving water quality and managing stormwater systems. In January 2020, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the lead for providing field technical support services to Buzzards Bay municipalities, received a $46,000 grant from the Massachusetts DEP to purchase a trailer and equipment to establish an illicit connection detection field investigation trailer that can be borrowed by Buzzards Bay municipalities for their own investigations. The Massachusetts Maritime Academy, with guidance from the Buzzards Bay NEP, outfitted the utility trailer, which is stationed at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and made available for municipalities to borrow. In partnership with Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Buzzards Bay NEP created a series of videos to help train local officials on the use of the trailer. You can view the videos on the Buzzards Bay Stormwater Collaborative YouTube Channel, or in the panel to the right.

Monitoring Tasks

In 2016, the initial monitoring focus of the Stormwater Collaborative was to sample stormwater networks discharging within 100 feet of either an area closed to shellfishing or other bacteria impaired waters (as defined in the Massachusetts Year 2016 Integrated List of Waters, Categories 4 and 5). Since then, the program has broadened to other urbanized sites, further from the coast.

Monitoring consists of wet weather sampling and dry weather inspections, with sampling if flows are present. Much of the effort is to detect and identify illicit discharges to stormwater networks. Often stormwater outfalls are located close to the oceanfront, so samples need be collected during low tide, however, because of seawater intrusion into stormwater networks, much of the program sampling is undertaken by removing stormwater manhole covers on the street to collect stormwater samples. Generally, wet weather monitoring attempts to collect samples during the first flush of stormwater runoff (less than 1 inch of rainfall). When samples contain high levels of contaminants, upgradient portions of the stormwater network will be subsequently monitored and evaluated to narrow down and identify potential sources of contamination. These Follow-up investigations may include dry weather and/or wet weather sampling.

Quality Assurance Program Plan and Field Monitoring Guide

Details of the water quality monitoring program, and a detailed description of the methodologies used can be found in the Stormwater Collaborative's Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP; updated May 5, 2023). We also updated our Stormwater Monitoring Guidelines in 2019: Monitoring-Guidelines-Rev7-08-15-23final.pdf.

Helpful Videos: Stormwater Sample Collecting and Testing

Equipment Manuals

Hach pH Probe

Extech Conductivity Probe

MSDS Sheets

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