The first time Melissa Haney and a fellow volunteer performed water testing for Summit County, they had to navigate a busy roadway by foot to access their assigned waterway.
The second time, a neighbor led them through her backyard to a portion of the creek.
“We’ve kind of made a friend,” said Haney, 68, a retired geologist and environmental consultant. “She’s really interested in what we’re doing, and I just text her when we’re going to come out, and she meets us there.”
The Copley resident said the encounter is evidence of the community’s interest in preserving water health, a mission the Summit Soil and Water Conservation District hopes to further with its report on more than 500 samples collected in 2024 from the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers.
“We sample in five watersheds in Cuyahoga County: three in the Cuyahoga River Basin and two in Tuscarawas,” said Sarah Barrow, the Watershed and Outreach supervisor for the district.
Barrow said the water testing that volunteers perform is something her staff doesn’t have the time or resources to accomplish.
“A lot of them live by the water and are really interested in what’s happening in their backyard or nearby,” Barrow said of the approximately 60 volunteers who are expected to contribute to the report card. “They provide an enormous service; just the amount of data alone — we could never do it.”
Geologist ‘not used to samples that move’
Volunteer training includes learning to operate a device a bit bigger than a TV remote with a hub and probes at one end. The device is waterproof and takes readings once it’s submerged. It captures water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity, which indicates the presence of other minerals dissolved in the water.
Haney learned of the volunteer opportunity last year through a friend. She now conducts monthly testing and spends about 20 minutes at each of her two assigned sites.
Some volunteers also conduct biological testing where they search for insects and report behaviors. This kind of testing requires a little more skill and additional training, and not all volunteers feel confident doing that portion.
“As a geologist,” Haney joked, “I’m not used to samples that move.”
Volunteers search for damselflies, stoneflies, mayflies, clams, snails and worms by wading into rivers and turning rocks over. Then they use a (typically square) mesh kick net downstream to catch unearthed organisms.
From there, volunteers note the various insects on a sheet, which scores each species’ presence based on how sensitive or tolerant they are to water conditions. The information offers early insight into potential problem areas.
“All river systems are connected,” Barrow said, and problem areas can pick up momentum and create a “cascading effect, annihilating a whole system if you don’t address it.”
Haney hopes report card spurs interest in environmental health
Barrow wants the report, created in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University’s business school, to be easily digestible for the public.
“I want it to be something where we can put the info out there,” Barrow said, “and someone off the street can walk in, pick it up and understand not only what we’re doing but how our volunteers are helping and what that local watershed looks like.”
Haney hopes the work will spur more interest in environmental health.
“I believe that we are pretty much destroying our environment, and the more information we have, hopefully we can prevent or reverse this,” she said. “Without clean water and air, we’re not going to survive.”
