Photo: Swimmers at Pemaquid Beach

Every summer, Coastal Rivers volunteers monitor swim beaches at Biscay Pond, Bristol Mills and Pemaquid in collaboration with the Maine Healthy Beaches program. There are currently a few openings for volunteers!

Trained volunteers collect water samples on a weekly basis and bring them to the Nature Center at Coastal Rivers Salt Bay Farm, where they are picked up and brought to a state-certified water quality lab in Rockland. There the samples are analyzed for fecal coliform bacteria.

This program provides real-time data for Damariscotta and Bristol, the towns that manage the swim beaches – so volunteer monitors are providing a critical service to the community and to the towns. In recent years, these beaches have been consistently very clean with minimal bacterial contamination.

Volunteers need to be available from roughly 7:30 am to 10:00 am on Tuesday mornings through the end of August.

Please email Sarah Gladu for more information or for a link to register for the training.