Water Quality Research - Area of Concern

Ambient Water Quality Monitoring Program

The Bay Guardian workboat arrived in June 2011, replacing a 24-year old workboat. The Bay Guardian is expected to provide us with improved capabilities to conduct water and sediment quality monitoring of the lower Fox River and Green Bay for the next 30+ years. The primary motivation for conducting this work is to provide us with high quality information that helps us to evaluate the impact of our discharge on the receiving waters, as well as provide professional services to other agencies and researchers who conduct monitoring or research on Green Bay.

GBMSD's program is the most extensive currently operated water quality monitoring effort in the region. Capabilities of the new workboat allowed us to expand the program to the mid-region of Green Bay, which will vastly improve our understanding of the water quality dynamics of the entire Bay. The hydrodynamic features of Green Bay are unique within the Great Lakes. The largest tributary loads seen anywhere in the Great Lakes for phosphorus, suspended solids, and PCBs flow from the Fox River into the southern end of Green Bay, dominating the water quality of that region. The mid-region of the Bay serves as a transition zone of ecological significance, where the cleaner upper Bay waters mix with the more polluted waters of the southern Bay.  Monitoring this transition zone will serve to quantify any improvements in the Fox River loadings to the Bay, as they will be measurable long before corresponding improvements are noted in the Area of Concern, or lower Bay.

GBMSD has long provided data and assistance to regulatory agencies and researchers interested in understanding the biology of Green Bay. Our improved capabilities associated with the Bay Guardian will further this mission. Detailed specifications of the workboat are attached. For further information about our Ambient Water Quality Monitoring Program or to discuss future collaborative efforts, contact Tracy Valenta, Water Resources Specialist, at tvalenta@gbmsd.org.