River des Peres/ Deer Creek EPA hazmat cleanup

When the remnants of Hurricane Ike traversed Missouri beginning at 8am on Sept 13th, 2008, it produced rainfalls between 3 and 7 times greater than normal.
"In Missouri, the heaviest rains were found across the northern half of the state. In northeast Missouri, Kirksville (Adair County) received a total of 8.14 inches of rain, while Columbia (Boone County) measured 7.19 inches of rain from the system. The St. Louis area was also hard hit, with O’Fallon (St. Charles County) reporting 5.84 inches of rain. Three deaths were reported in association with the storm. A woman was killed when a tree was struck by lightning and a limb fell on her in Ladue (St. Louis County). Two other people were killed in University City (St. Louis County) when they were swept away by flood waters while trying to move their vehicles to higher ground. Numerous roads were closed by flooding, including a stretch of Interstate 70. At the peak of the storm nearly 106,000 people were without power in the St. Louis Area."
http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/0809/080916.htm
Dramatic flash flooding was widely reported in many watersheds, including Coldwater Creek in North St. Louis County and Deer Creek in Brentwood, Ladue, Rock Hill, Maplewood and Webster Groves.
Following the flood, Stream Teams from the River des Peres Watershed Coalition mobilized to accomplish cleanups and assessment.
Danelle Haake, Susan Loui and Ben Griffiths and others filled the first dumpster on Sept 15th and, in the process, identified the first 3 55 gallon drums of toxic waste that had floated downstream in the flood.
Consecutive surveys of Deer Creek by kayak, and the River des Peres by canoe found 9 more 55 gallon drums of hazardous material.
Stream Team AmeriCorps contacted the MO Dept of Natural Resources Environmental Emergency Response hotline, and effected location and cleanup. In the process, the EPA became involved as they were also cleaning up several flood related disasters. More Stream Team AmeriCorps surveys were conducted and the locations of 30 more 55 gallon drums were determined by gps and transmitted to EPA situation coordinator, Heath Smith. Several EPA contractors were tasked with recovery, characterization and disposal.

In total, a minimum of 52 hazardous waste items were recovered and disposed of in the safe and legal manner as a result of these Stream Team efforts. You can see more photos here.

AmeriCorps Position Open!

The River des Peres Watershed Coalition is looking for a staff person! We have put together funding for a half-time AmeriCorps position. The job announcement follows:

The River des Peres Watershed Coalition is a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the condition of the River des Peres and its tributary streams in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

We are seeking a half-time staff person to be funded through the Americorps program. This is a one-year commitment (900 hours) with a possibility of an extension for a second year. Compensation includes a $6,036 stipend and a $2,362 educational award. **There is a possibility that this could be upgraded to a full-time position (1700 hours), with efforts to be shared with Missouri Coalition for the Environment. A full time position would receive a $11,400 stipend, a $4,725 educational award, and health benefits.

Expected duties may include communicating with partner organizations, updating databases, writing newsletter articles, assisting local Stream Teams, water quality monitoring, and event planning.

Requirements:
- good communication skills (verbal and written)
- computer literacy
- organized
- interest in water quality or urban streams
- valid drivers license
- reliable transportation
- ability to work some evening and weekend hours for meetings and events

Preferred skills:
- experience giving presentations
- knowledge of urban streams in general or the River des Peres in particular
- Stream Team training (will be provided if not previously trained)

Please send a cover letter and resume to riverdesperes@yahoo.com to be considered for this position. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled, but we intend to fill the position in September. Earliest responses will receive priority!

Watershed-Wide Monitoring in the River des Peres

On October 4th, the River des Peres Watershed Coalition will hold the Third Annual Watershed-Wide Monitoring Event. Stream Team volunteers will visit sites throughout the watershed to allow us to have a 'snapshot' of the water quality in the River des Peres and its tributaries in St. Louis City and County. For event details, visit www.riverdesperes.org.

This event is part of the World Water Monitoring Day event that has allowed volunteers across the globe to collect water quality data that can give us an estimate of the condition of our precious water supplies! For details of the international efforts, go to www.wwmd.org.

USGS estimates N & P load to gulf 50% larger than 30 yr avg.

http://toxics.usgs.gov/hypoxia/mississippi/oct_jun/graphics.html




An email from the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee alerted us that the US Geological Survey has released a preliminary report indicating the highest Nitrogen and Phosphorous loads in three decades were delivered to the Gulf of Mexico's "Hypoxic Zone" between October and June this year.

It makes sense that historic, record breaking rainfall this year would wash almost all of the Spring fertilizers directly into the river. They are, after all, water soluble.

Nutrient flow was about 50% higher than the spring nutirient loads averaged since 1980. It should be interesting to see how big the Hypoxic Zone will be this year, but that picture won't be out until next year at least.

Robber Fly or Assassin Fly- Diptera Asilidae

Bernie Arnold sent this really cool picture of a predator gnawing on a hapless victim of nature (that profligate waster and spender of life).
We're thinking Diptera Asilidae efferia sp. The length is 2 to 3 times the width, and notice the sword-like ovipositor-- FEMALE!

Now, for extra points, who can identify it's lunch to the species level?

A really cool website for everything you ever wanted to know about these voracious predators can be found at: http://www.geller-grimm.de/asilidae.htm

And, of course, there is the ever helpful Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilidae

Hungry. Send more bugs.

Common whitetail dragonfly at Watkins Creek

I took this slightly fuzzy picture of a "Common Whitetail dragonfly" or "Long tailed skimmer" on the lower reach of Watkins Creek between the old Coal Bank Rd bridge and the deadend posts.
While the Mississippi River is within easy flying distance, it is more probable that this creature emerged from Watkins creek. He was found at UTM Zone 15S, Easting 7,444,631.54 Northing 4,295,313.27

The squarish brown blocks on the wings and the distinctive white tail suggest this is Plathemis lydia (aka?) Libellula lydia and also tell us that this is a mature male (as only they get the white tail). "In 1955, M.E. Jacobs found that the white color of the male's abdomen was used in display to other males in a contest for territory and that its color did not influence female choice." http://www.sonic.net/~bigsnest/Pond/dragons/skimmers.html#LILY

I'll be looking for dragonfly larvae slightly upstream to rear in captivity to be sure. I found a copyrighted photo of this species larva at the University of Puget Sound's Slater Museum of Natural History here. with the actual picture here. A way to get copyright permissions was not immediately available.

This particular species does not appear in the USGS county level checklist for species known to inhabit St. Louis county. It does appear in the list and distribution map for St. Louis city. and the city/ county limit is very close to where this creature was found (though technically straying into county territory), but if this species were to be found spawning in watkins creek, the map should probably change.

A cool taxonomic key for the Odonates of Michigan can be found here, the dragonflies (Anisoptera families) here, and the crenallations specifying the species here.

Water quality monitoring papers since the 50's have identified this species as "facultative" or "moderately pollution tolerant" with no apparent distinction between members of the order or family at the species level.

Species taxonomy also found here: http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Libellula_lydia

Plecoptera- Stonefly distributions in the US

I found this picture at http://www.bugguide.net It is a good site for info on miscellaneous bugs. Copyrighted pic, used by permission of Donald Chandler.

Here is a link to the USGS distribution maps to county level and a lot of other information about Stoneflies. A county level checklist is available here, so that you can see which species of stonefly are known to live in your county. With this list in hand you could google images for the species name and may find the stoneflies in your creek.

I found this site through the Plecoptera Society of North America's workshop manual (pdf format)which you can download here.

Stoneflies are amazing, and one of the most sensitive bioindicator macs for pollution and other anthropogenic effects.
A web-based plecoptera key can be found at this University of New Brunswick (CA)website.

The USGS is still an amazing resource, despite having been cut to the bone so many times in recent years. They have similar websites for Mayflies and other taxa which WQ monitors are interested in.

Wikipedia and Tree of Life pages for Insecta

Odonata Anisoptera Libellulidae Sympetrum flaveolum
Common name: Yellow tailed darter.
Regretably, this little beauty is not a natural resident of the United States.
You can tell this by drilling down to the species list at:
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/insects/dfly/usa/toc.htm


There are several internet websites that are laid out according to taxonomic systems in an attempt to chronicle all living organisms. Here is one such link for Insecta. To travel up the tree, click on the containing group link; in this case, hexapoda. To see members of insecta, click on branching links in the tree.
For instance, Odonata exists as a link at the end of the tree:
Pterygota
Insecta
Hexapoda
Arthropoda
Bilateria
Eukaryotes
Life on Earth

While the Infraorder sublinks are not clickable, (and therefore you cannot get to species level) there are, nevertheless, cool pictures and movies of dragonflys and damselflys to the right.

Compare this with the Wikipedia pages for dragonfly, where entries do more often branch to the species level and photos are creative commons licensed rather than private copyright. Information about the images above can be seen at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Sympetrum_flaveolum_-_side_%28aka%29.jpg

Do you have cool photos of macroinvertebrates that you have identified? Why not share them with the internet world.

Macroinvertebrate Field and Laboratory Methods for Evaluating the Biological Integrity of Surface Waters

The EPA's website for the 1994 manual:
Macroinvertebrate Field and Laboratory Methods for Evaluating the Biological Integrity of Surface Waters link

NABS macroinvertebrate taxonomic certification

Here is the North American Benthological Society's (NABS) website for taxonomic certification. Membership dues are $70 annually, running December to December and this certification covers more than the usual macroinvertebrates we encounter here in Missouri. It seems, the closest site for regular testing and training workshops is at the University of Illinois, Champaign; but their are some pretty cool photo and resource link pages here that can help you learn more than you need to know about macroinvertebrate systematics.

Workshops and tests cover:
Group 1 - Crustacea, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Megaloptera, Odonata, Trombidiformes
Group 2 - Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera
Group 3 - Chironomidae
Group 4 - Oligochaeta, Hirudinea
Group 5 - Mollusca

Ergonomic design for seated mac counting net frame

Bob Coffing, team leader for ST#2991 La Barque Creek, designed and built this light weight net holder and 5 gallon pail seat. It's a great idea that utilizes the net handles with two perpendicular handle spreaders with legs to maintain an easy working height with minimal back strain.

How to mount specimens for educational use.

Here is a USDA website and pdf version of a lab manual:

"Collecting and Preserving Insects and Mites: Tools and Techniques" an updated and modified version of the USDA Misc. Publication no. 1443 published by the Agricultural Research service in 1986 and Edited by George C. Steyskal, William L. Murphy, and Edna M. Hoover.

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to kill and preserve those tiny macroinvertebrates.

La Barque Creek WQM month

La Barque Creek continues to garner well-deserved attention as an unusual and protected safehaven for spectacular biological diversity. Water quality monitoring attempts for last months 'bioblitz' were mostly postponed due to greater than usual flood waters and rain surge events. Bob Coffing has come up with a new plan to try to rectify the situation and to gather as much data as we can in a watershed profile: "WQM Month" will begin June 1st and end July 1st. The idea is that it becomes increasingly difficult to coordinate a large number of Water Quality Monitors for a single "bioblitz" day, but that smaller groups of 2 or 3 or 6 could coordinate with Bob to gather Macroinvertebrate and Chemistry data for multiple sites on different days.

If you would like to be a part of this team effort, or if you would just like the opportunity to survey a creek that actually has bugs in it, please contact: "robert coffing" robertcoffing@sbcglobal.net

Get the lead out

Does anyone have a source for cheap lead test kits that quantify lead in water?

ST 3550 Recovers ATM machine from Big River

The Story below was printed first in the Park Kills MO "Daily Journal. You can read their version here.

It was then picked up by Fox 2 News and aired on Tuesday evening. You can see the text here:
and the video here.


Missouri Stream Team 3550 recovers ATM from the Big River at Bonehole access.

On Saturday, May 17th, Stream Team #3550 cleaned sections of the Big River from Mount's Gravel Pit (off of Hwy 8) to the Bonehole access (near Hwy P).

One of the Stream Team crews, composed of Park Hills and Des loges residents, recovered a 200 pound ATM cash dispensing machine near the Bonehole access.

The recovery team was Sam Allison, Jamie Allison, Jeff Barton, Jason Legrand, Rodney Reed, Tim Richardson, Jason Stevens, and Brad Yoder.

The team dug the ATM out of the silty mud, and Mr. Yoder used his truck and a tow chain to drag it up onto the bank.

Stream Team coordinator, Jerry "Chip" Barton called the St. Francois County Sherriff's office, and Deputy Jason Rayoun retrieved the ATM for inspection of identifying serial numbers, bank identification logos and the mud soaked hard drive. Kenny Barkley's tow truck hauled the evidence back to the station for inspection.

The ATM appeared to have been in the river a very long time and the data may not be recoverable, but speculation was high that it may be evidence of a crime as ATM companies and banks do not dispose of their equipment in this way. when found, a fish had taken up residence inside, but the money box was long gone.

In addition to the ATM, Stream Team 3550 recovered and removed approximately 2 tons of trash from the Big River and its tributaries. This included 48 tires, a clothes drier, a couch, a swimming pool, 80 full bags of assorted trash, about 300 pounds of metal that was recycled.

The family of Kenny and Phyllis Ratliff won this representation of a native American medicine shield, which was donated by a local resident sponsor.



The cleanup was to have involved canoes donated by Cherokee Landing, but became a land-based operation, instead, due to near flood conditions. Several local kayakers from Leadwood were the only Stream Team members to collect trash by boat.

The "boat based" cleanup has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 7th with the Stream Team members meeting at the Leadwood boat access at 8 am. Call Jerry Barton in Leadwood (573-218-8989) for more information and to join this effort.

The Missouri Stream Team program is a joint partnership of the Department of Conservation (MDC), the Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), and the Conservation Federation of Missouri, local volunteers and sponsors.

There are currently more than 3,500 Stream Teams in the state and over 70,000 members. Collectively, these volunteers have removed more than 400,000 tons of trash and debris from Missouri's rivers and streams in the 19 years that the program has existed. You can see this collective effort represented on an interactive map at http://www.mostreamteam.org.



Thomas Ball
Missouri Stream Team AmeriCorps Assistant
home (314) 962-1241
Confluence Greenway office (314) 436-1324 ext 118

thomas.ball@sbcglobal.net

www.mostreamteam.org
www.moriver.org

Stream Team on Facebook

For those of you with access to Facebook, there is a page set up for the Missouri Stream Team there:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6285532050

Hopefully this will be another place we can go to share our enthusiasm, post our events, and meet fellow Stream Teamers!

Need WQMs in Washington County for demo at Potosi Cleanup 5/10

ST 3550 (Leadwood MO) is hosting a litter pickup on Breton Creek at the Potosi MO City Park on Saturday, May 10th 2008. The event has been requested by Potosi Mayor T. R. Dudley who is forming a new Potosi Stream Team.

We need a couple of Water Quality Monitors (preferably from washington county &/or Potosi area- given gas prices) to demonstrate collecting Macs & data from the stream & help present it at the Stream Team display booth for the educational part of the program. Registration for cleanup starts at 8:00 am at Potosi City Park. Event will end at about 1:30. Hot dogs, chips & drinks are being provided by the Potosi Parks Board.

For more information about the cleanup contact Jerry "Chip" Barton at 573-218-8989.
To volunteer to help with WQM demo contact MO Stream Team AmeriCorps assistant, thomas.ball@sbcglobal.net home (some evenings) 314-962-1241 Confluence Greenway (most days) 314-436-1324 ext 118.

Call for presenters for MEEA Conference

The Missouri Environmental Education Association (MEEA) Conference will be December 5th & 6th in St. Louis at the Missouri Botanical Garden. They have a standing call for presenters which you can find here. The deadline for presentation proposals is May 14th.

I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for some ambitious Water Quality Monitors to present some accumulated data. Possibly, we could do a panel comparison of results from high & low on the River des Peres Watershed, Watkins Creek and La Barque Creek, for instance, along with discussion of how the data is being used. Possibly, we could collaborate with the Missouri Master Naturalists & they could present results of their terrestrial snail survey, bryophyte survey and etc. to name a few.

If interested in being a part of this, please contact thomas.ball@sbcglobal.net

USGS stream flow gages for MO rivers

Here's a Weblink to the USGS National Water Information System for Missouri's rivers & streams. Many of the rivers and streams in the US have permanent automated gaging stations that send real time data to the internet. You can view & download reports on current and past river conditions in several formats. Regretably, this program has been underfunded for years and there are many rivers that don't have a gage that should have one, but who knows you might get lucky with your particular monitoring site.

It's really handy to be able to look on the internet and see what the river is doing and what it has done in the past. It can save you a trip to a distant monitoring site if you look it up and find it to be in a flash flooding condition and worth waiting until it goes down again. Also, it can shorten your data collection significantly if your stream flow rate is already known and from a reliable source
I have my WQM sites saved to "favorites" or bookmarked, and here is an example from Watkins Creek in North St. Louis County

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site_no=07001985&agency_cd=USGS

The search process is a little daunting, but with tenacity you should be able to find what you are looking for and more. There have been times in the past when this program got more money, and so in many cases you have access to a lot of Water Quality Monitoring data collected and delivered from a very professional source- the USGS water quality technicians. This can be great if you have a new site and want to see what the water quality picture looked like in past years. For instance:
http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/qwdata/?site_no=07001985&agency_cd=USGS

Some of the sites are still being actively monitored four times a year, so you can frequently find water chemistry data that can support or question your own data collection.

There's another river gage site I've been going to a lot, lately, to see what is happening with the floods. NOAA has a really nice site for flood status and prediction and much of the eastern Missouri river systems can be found here :
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=lsx
Click on one of the square dots in the interactive map to see what's happening and what is likely to happen at that particular location and river.

Here is what the national picture looks like:
http://www.weather.gov/ahps/

Different river systems are handled by different forecasting centers for different parts of the state. So here is the interactive map that can take you to the center that covers your neck of the woods:
http://www.weather.gov/ahps/rfc/rfc.php

River des Peres in the News

Recently, the River des Peres Watershed Coalition has been in the news quite a bit. Danelle Haake, the current Chairperson of the Coalition, will be interviewed the morning of April 22 by Doug McElvein of the KMOX morning show "Total Information" (am 1120). The audio of the interview may be downloaded from the KMOX website.

Cindy Duhigg, Danelle Haake, and Howard Webb of the Coalition were interviewed by Don Corrigan of the Times for their April 18, 2008 edition. The article and images may be found by visiting the Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times (note: different images are available for the two different articles).

The Coalition also found its way into the Journal on February 19, 2008. The article included interviews and photos of Danelle Haake and Dan Sherburne by Shawn Clubb. The article was printed in the West County Journal, the Kirkwood-Webster Journal, the South County Journal, and the South Side Journal.

We thank out local news outlets for their interest and their help in spreading the word!