DESCRIPTION
The Carpenter Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program is an on-going program established in 2001 to assess and track water quality in Carpenter Creek.
The Cutthroats of Carpenter Creek, a community group coordinated by Stillwaters Environmental Center in Kingston, WA, formed in 1998 to protect water quality as well as fish and wildlife habitat in the Carpenter Creek sub-watershed. Randi Thurston, Kitsap County Stream Team Specialist, prepared a set of monitoring protocols for Cutthroats volunteers to follow. Kitsap County staff conducted the original water quality assessment training with Cutthroats volunteers in January 2001. Monthly water monitoring began at four sites in February 2001 and has been on-going for over a decade. The program was intended to augment monthly conducted by the Bremerton-Kitsap County Health District at the mouth of Carpenter Creek.
Monthly water sampling throughout the calendar year measures: pH. turbidity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, total orthophospate, nitrate, fecal coliform bacteria and stream flow. [add laboratory that processes samples']
Currently the monitoring teams are coordinated by Joleen Palmer, program director of Stillwaters Environmental Center.
