Last late spring I recieved an email about the MN Pollution Control Agency looking for volunteers to take water clarity readings.
The email went something like this…
“Do you live near a lake or stream in Minnesota, or visit one regularly? If so, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency needs your help.
How you can help
Become a citizen lake or stream volunteer and help gather vital information about the health of our water resources. Volunteers measure the clarity of lakes and streams, collecting valuable data the MPCA uses to make decisions on watershed protection and restoration. For some lakes and streams, data collected by volunteers are the only data available, making this work indispensable.
Join more than 1,400 Minnesotans who track the health of their favorite lake or stream through the Citizen Lake and Stream Monitoring Programs!”
After reading through their website, all they were looking for were people that lived, worked or played near a river, stream or lake and take as many Secchi tube readings as a person felt comfortable with, record it and email it in. Since I was on Pool 4 most every weekend…why not? Easy Cheesy.
Well, not quite as easy cheesy as I thought. Remembering to take a reading during the daylight hours seem ridiculously hard. I finally realized I needed to leave the tube in plan site before heading out so I would remember to stop at the same location an take a reading. It took under 5 minutes to fill the tube, raise the disk and record the number in centimeters.
I went a little further and recorded the stage and flow and if there was any rain fall in the area.
My contact Shannon Martin was very helpful and supportive the couple of times I emailed her for questions.
I wanted to get weekly readings, but when we couldn’t find the launch ramps because of the flooding, she said “whatever you can give us is more then we have now and we don’t want to to put yourself in any danger for a reading”.
So, that’s what I did. I sent in about 20 readings over the summer months and now I’m changing my sampling location to the dock at Everts. If I can arrange for someone to collect a tube of water for me out by the green Nav Marking I’ll have a bonus reading.
Anyway, the first photo is of the tube filled with water and the Secchi disc is clearly visible.
The disc is lowered into the tube until it’s out of sight by looking directly down the tube.
A few up and down motions to ensure it’s at the point of disappearance, lock the cord with my thumb and record the number by looking at the side of the tube. Back to easy cheesy.
The point of this post is to make others aware the MPCA is still looking for folks to take readings on the body of water near you.
Not much time commitment and the pay reflects that. 
But it is pretty cool to see how much the water clarity bounces around.
3 miles up the Vermilion in April I had my highest reading of 74 cm.
At the same time the main channel in front of Everts was at 39 cm.
After a heavy rain 24 cm was common.
I pulled a 55 from Everts dock two weeks ago (influenced by the Trimbel)
If I’ve sparked an interest, take a look at their website and then shoot Shannon Martin an email for more details.
Most of us are on the water frequently throughout the summer.
“Clearly” it doesn’t take much time.
Shannon Martin| Citizen Monitoring Programs
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
520 Lafayette Road | Saint Paul, MN | 55155
651-757-2874 | [email protected]
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/cmp
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