Make a difference and share your skills !
Volunteer Highlight :
Rob Tuttle
One of his life goals is to “ contribute in some small way to sustainable water quality and supply in the face of climate change .”
By guest writer Elinor Knodel
You never know what you might find in the woods . In spring 2016 , Rob Tuttle was riding his bicycle on a path along a tributary of Mill Creek , when he came upon three people in the stream , “ looking like they were having a great time .” It turned out to be Kristen Travers , Watershed Stewardship Team Leader at Delaware Nature Society , and two volunteers , who were collecting water samples to measure stream health . Realizing that this was just the type of volunteer opportunity he had been looking for , Rob asked how he could become involved with the Stream Watch program .
Much of Rob ’ s professional career was focused on the development and commercialization of clinical chemistry analyzers , as a software and systems engineer . Rob was intrigued by the similarities of measuring chemicals to monitor human health with measuring different chemicals to monitor the water quality of streams . Post-retirement , Rob has explored environmental science through independent reading and by completing courses on environmental hydrology and geographic data analysis at the University of Delaware . One of his life goals is to “ contribute in some small way to sustainable water quality and supply in the face of climate change .”
Rob ’ s training as a Stream Watch volunteer included both reviewing the program on the Delaware Nature Society website and on-the-job training with Kristen . He learned how to assess water chemistry by measuring such parameters as pH and nitrate concentration , and to use calibrated meters to measure dissolved oxygen and conductivity . Rob now monitors two sites along the Christina River monthly and enters the test results into a password-protected database at Delaware Nature Society ’ s website . In addition to getting his feet wet in chemistry testing
( quite literally , sometimes ), Rob is also applying his programming skills to improve Stream Watch data collection , data quality checks , and report generation .
When I asked Rob about any ‘ surprises ’ during his Stream Watch activities , he recounted this story .
Rob and Kristen were following up on a rather high bacterial count in a local stream tributary , wanting to find the source of the problem . They knew the bacteria could originate from either a point source such as a pipe or a diffuse source such as run-off from the land . Rob hiked upstream and eventually saw something white lying across the bottom of the stream . It appeared to be a previously buried sewer pipe that had been exposed due to stream bank erosion . They sampled water immediately upstream and downstream of the exposed pipe . Subsequent results showed that , indeed , the bacterial count was slightly higher downstream than upstream . They had found a point source . Kristen alerted people in the New Castle County government , who confirmed they were aware of and working on it .
“ My life is full of serendipity that occurred in the woods ,” says Rob . We ’ re glad to be part of that story and to benefit from Rob ’ s experience and dedication to the Stream Watch program . Thanks , Rob !
Make a difference and share your skills !
DelNature . org / Volunteer
28 NATURE EXPLORER March – July 2017