Penn State Extension Educator, Jim Clark, and the Cameron County Conservation District, recently obtained a $6,000 grant from the Headwaters RC&D Sinnemahoning Stakeholders Group.

The grant will pay for water tests for 35 rural ponds located throughout the Sinnemahoning Watershed.

The ponds need to be one quarter acre or larger in size and will be selected on a first come, first served basis. The ponds must be located in the Sinnemahoning Watershed to be accepted. Clark will collect all of the samples and deliver them to the Penn State Water Lab in State College, PA, this spring.

The Penn State Water Lab has two pond test kit options and these ponds will be tested for pH, total dissolved solids, nitrate-nitrogen, alkalinity, aluminum, iron, manganese, phosphorus, sulfate, hardness, and E. coli bacteria.

The combined results will be shared at a Penn State Extension Pond Management Workshop to be held in Emporium, PA, in Cameron County, in September of 2013. The project is designed to encourage pond owners to regularly check the water quality of their pond, to better manage the pond.

Penn State Pond Water Test Kits are available at your local extension office.  If you own a pond in the Sinnemahoning Watershed and would like to participate in this study please contact Jim Clark by sending email to: jac20@psu.edu.

(Written By: James A. Clark, Extension Educator, Cameron/Elk/Jefferson/McKean/Potter District, and Reprinted from the Watershed Winds newsletter published by Penn State Extension)

3/11/2013