LEONARDTOWN, Md. – The need for inexpensive and widespread water quality monitoring in the Bay watershed has spurred an educational project that recently got a boost from funding partners.
Eighteen automated buoys, called Bay Observation Boxes (BOBs) have been built in the past three years through a partnership between the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association (SMRWA) and Natural Resources Management (NRM) teacher Dorothy Birch and her students at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center in Leonardtown.
The work will continue with the funds from two recent grants, one from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to support environmental education and another from the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (administered through the Chesapeake Bay Trust) to encourage innovation in restoring oysters to the waterway. These grants bring the total awarded to this project to $45,000.
The buoys rely on microprocessor technology and cost about $900 each, in contrast to commercial equipment that sells for upwards of $20,000. They send live data to the Internet every fifteen minutes, which can be viewed through the students’ website (bit.ly/BOBsWebsite).
According to SMRWA’s Executive Director Emma Green Ewing, “The Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response report published recently by the Chesapeake Bay Program shows the current models we have for Bay water quality are not accurately predicting what we’re seeing on the ground. To understand what needs to be done to save the Bay, we need more data in crucial habitats like the shallows. BOBs have the potential to give us those data.”
To date, the partners have placed BOBs in SMRWA’s potential and existing oyster restoration sites as well as at educational locations like Leonardtown Wharf and Calvert Marine Museum. Birch’s students make regular field trips to clean and maintain them.
So far, the partnership has collected millions of data points for air temperature and humidity, water temperature at the surface and bottom, dissolved oxygen, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, and salinity.
While data analysis is only beginning, Green Ewing is pleased with early results, saying the best part of the project has been “looking at how well some of the data have turned out in comparison to commercial equipment.”
Volunteer Norm O’Foran, who builds the devices, remains more cautious, noting that some of the sensors seem less reliable than others, especially galvanic dissolved oxygen in calm waters. O’Foran also notes that biofouling remains a critical concern in the harsh Bay environment, causing sensor drift within a week or two of deployment.
To solve these issues, O’Foran has prototyped a new “BOB 3.0” design that houses the sensors and controllers within a protected five-gallon bucket and filters water samples for analysis. He hopes to have the new BOB ready for deployment this spring.
Educational Benefits
Birch’s NRM students have used the BOBs to study everything from parameters of water quality to instrument calibration and maintenance to data collection and analysis. Birch said that this project-based learning “allows my students to tackle real-world issues with no predetermined answer key – and to work to make a real, positive difference in the environment right now!”
Student Chris Moore agreed. “The day we kept taking the water quality measurements wrong in our aquarium, we had to keep working through our problems with the data together. That’s a really effective, authentic way to learn.”
Other teachers and students at the Career and Tech Center have also contributed to the project as needed. For instance, Casey Page and her Graphic Communications students designed the BOB logo and community signage, and Eric Millham and his Digital Media Production students made promotional videos. Nathan Swick and Arnold Skinner and their students have helped to create a turbidity sensor prototype – soldering parts, testing electronic boards, and building equipment housing.
Swick observed, “This practical involvement has not only enhanced their technical skills but also instilled a sense of ownership and responsibility towards environmental improvement.”
Birch’s student Owen Hodack concluded, “The best part of this project so far has been both learning about water quality and helping the community. It’s been so amazing to see all these people come together to protect our ecosystem.”
To learn more, visit https://smrwa.org/programs/bobs-project/. You can donate to this and other projects by the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association at https://smrwa.org/donate/.
This project was supported through the Chesapeake Oyster Innovation Program with funding provided by the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance and Chesapeake Bay Foundation.