Mulpus Brook – Photo by Carolyn McCarthy

NRWA Water Monitoring Program

This year (2023) marks the 31st season that dedicated volunteers have monitored water quality and reported conditions and observations at over 30 sites throughout the Nashua River watershed. The Water Monitoring Program builds community awareness of water issues, helps identify and restore problem sites, promotes advocacy for our watershed, and increases the volume of information available on our waters. We use the monitoring results to create a River Report Card that is shared with volunteers, the public, and Massachusetts and New Hampshire state agencies each month. View historic water quality data. For more information on what we monitor, and why, see our Volunteer Water Monitoring Manual. Monitoring for the 2022 season is supported in part by grants from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation and the Fieldstone Foundation.

For a peek at what it's like to be a volunteer monitor, view videos created by Dawn McCall and Mike Labbe, NRWA Water Monitors from Shirley: Water Sampling and In the Lab.

Monitors: Please visit our Monitors Corner for more monitoring details, to read our Volunteer Manual, find kit pick-up dates, a list of sites, our monitoring schedule, data forms, and directions to the labs.

NOTE:  Not all data have been quality control checked.

For more information about our water monitoring program, or to get involved by becoming a Volunteer Water Monitor, please contact Jessica Veysey Powell, NRWA Watershed Scientist, at (978) 448-0299, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..