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An East Carolina University associate dean, Sound Rivers staff and public school teachers from Gates County met last Friday in Washington to embark on a unique trade: training teachers about water quality in exchange for use of some sophisticated equipment that will feed water-quality data to Sound Rivers staff in real time.

“It all came about because our water-quality intern, Jonah, introduced us to his father, Dr. Dan Dickerson, who’s an associate dean for research and professor of science education in the college of education at ECU,” said Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman.

In search of an opportunity to fulfill a grant requirement to provide Gates County teachers resources to create curriculum focusing on water quality, Dickerson enlisted the help of Katey, Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz.

“We talked to them about our programs — Swim Guide, our Litter-Free Rivers’ trash traps, Water Watch — and gave them our materials, so they could take them and create curriculum for the K through 12 classroom settings,” Katey said. “Even though Gates County is not in either of our watersheds, this will ultimately benefit Sound Rivers because these teachers will be sharing what they create with us, which means we can then share it with the teachers we work with in our watersheds.”

In return, the Riverkeeping team has been given access to an AquaTroll 500, a probe that allows wireless data collection when conducting long-term water monitoring at remote sites.

“It is super-similar to our YSI meter that we use, but we can attach this one to a dock or another stationary object and leave it there, and it is able to communicate the water-quality data back to us remotely.”

Katey said they plan to use the AquaTroll 500 in Blounts Creek to monitor changes in water quality when Martin Marietta Materials’ limestone mine begins operating, which involves discharging up to 12 million gallons of freshwater per day into the brackish headwaters of the creek.

“It’s great, because we already have a volunteer on Blounts Creek who’s willing to attach the AquaTroll to his dock,” Katey said.

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Read more about Blounts Creek and Sound Rivers’ 14-year-battle to save the creek here.

Listen to “The Story of Blounts Creek,” Sound Rivers’ first podcast episode here!