Monitoring Water Quality

Since 1997, volunteers with Nature Forward have been monitoring two sites on Ten Mile Creek four times a year to assess the health of the creek. One site is on the “mainstem” of the creek just upstream of the ford on West Old Baltimore Road, and the other site is on the tributary that runs alongside West Old Baltimore Road.

Volunteers determine stream health by collecting small organisms that live in the creek called “macroinvertebrates” and identifying them with field microscopes. Because some macroinvertebrates are more sensitive to pollution and environmental stress than others, they are good indicators of water quality. Each monitoring session receives a stream health score on a scale of 1 to 5. Except during droughts and after big storms, both sites have consistently ranked in the good to excellent range, attesting that Ten Mile Creek is one of the healthiest streams in Montgomery County. For more information on Nature Forward’s Water Quality Monitoring Program, click here. If you would like to help monitor Ten Mile Creek, please contact Cathy Wiss at cjwiss@yahoo.com.

This past May, Cathy Wiss, our lead water quality monitor, reported a benthic data scored a 5.00 – the highest possible score – meaning that the water quality is excellent!