Water Quality Monitoring

WATER QUALITY MONITORING

Sauk County Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Department has taken on the role of water quality monitoring to assess the health of streams in the county. We recognize the importance in establishing a water quality baseline to track the health of streams and determine areas of special concern so that project funding could be targeted properly. A number of streams and locations are selected each year based on proposed water quality projects, past and future projects. Our team samples macroinvertabrates(water insects), dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, conductivity at each specified location. Sensors are deployed at each site for 1-4 weeks at a time gathering water quality data every 30 minutes. When possible, we are teaming up with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to track the health of fish communities.

The plan is to gather data on most streams in Sauk County by using a 5-10 year rotation. The data collected will be used to assess the effects of water quality projects and land use changes occurring throughout the county over a period of time. We are still in the process of collecting baseline data on most of Sauk County's streams.
 

If you have any questions, please contact Serge Koenig with the Sauk County Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Department at 608-355-3245.