River Water Quality Monitoring-Summer – Volunteers Needed

2024 will be the fourth consecutive summer the LCA will coordinate with the Connecticut River Conservancy to monitor the water quality at the new Mill River Greenway-Leeds conservation area north of Chartpak dam. What this means is that each Thursday morning from June 1 through September 7 water samples must be collected from the site, rain or shine. Water and air temperature are taken and noted along with weather conditions from the past 48 hours. Water samples kept on ice and the log sheet are driven to the CRC building on Damon Road by 9:00 a.m. The CRC sends samples to the lab for testing. Results are posted on the CRC site on Friday afternoons.
Water sampling at this site is important for public health.

Collecting water samples is sort of a cool volunteer gig. It’s a great opportunity for high school students, college students home for the summer, or anyone interested in environmental science, ecology, conservation–you don’t have to be a student–early rising retirees make wonderful volunteers! Having 3-4 volunteers would make it possible to split up the weeks. Training involves coming along for one on-site morning water sampling, which takes about 15 minutes. If you’re interested in helping with this effort for the summer of 2024, please contact Heidi Stevens at heidi@heidistevens.com or call 413-588-1327 or leave a text. Even if you’re not sure you can commit just yet, touch base anyway and when we get closer to June 1, you’ll be contacted to see if you’re still interested.

2024 Mill River Trails Summer Cleanups – Volunteers Needed

For the past three summers the Leeds Civic Association has led an effort to keep the new conservation area north of Chartpak dam and the bike path leading to it as free of trash as possible. Our partners have been volunteers from Friends of Northampton Trails and the Inclusive Group. The three groups rotate every third weekend from the end of May through Labor day. Volunteers collect trash in bags provided by the City and the bags are hauled away and disposed of by Tom Annese from the Office of Planning and Sustainability. If you would like to volunteer for a weekend, please contact Heidi Stevens: heidi@heidistevens.com. or call or text 413-588-1327. The 2024 cleanup calendar will be set up by end of April, 2024. On summer weekdays, if you visit the river beach area and notice trash issues, please contact Heidi so we can get volunteers to pick it up before the wildlife gets to it or rain sends it down stream.