The Kennebec Estuary Land Trust in Bath is seeking volunteers to help test coastal waters in Georgetown and Phippsburg for a variety of organic chemicals, including dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature and pH levels. The testing program begins during the second week of May and runs through the summer.

The program began in Georgetown in 2012 and expanded to Phippsburg in 2015. KELT’s Ruth Indrick said that, on average, the nonprofit secures 8-10 volunteers per town, but that this year Phippsburg is in need of more volunteers.

“There are nine sites in Georgetown and 10 in Phippsburg, and it’s nice to have at least one person per site,” said Indrick, who is heading up the project.

Indrick said that after volunteers sign up for the program, they are trained for water testing. Then they are assigned a site, which they visit every two weeks to take water samples.

On testing day, volunteers meet at their respective town office, and then head to check their specific site. They then meet back at the office and analyze their findings together.

“They sit around the table and do their thing, and it’s fun because it ends up being a kind of social gathering,” said Indrick.

Indrick said that findings over the past few years have helped test the viability of how the waters change across the seasons.

“We’ve also noticed different salinity levels between the sites,” Indrick said. “We haven’t found any sites that have terrible levels, which is a good thing. Now that we have a couple years we are able to see changes over time.”

To learn more about becoming a water testing volunteer for KELT, visit kennebecestuary.org.

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