Connecticut River Conservancy Invites Community Volunteers for Chloride Testing Watershed-Wide

Testing strip for chloride in the Connecticut River

Interested in getting outside and learning about our rivers? The Connecticut River Conservancy (CRC) is seeking volunteers in the Connecticut River watershed (in NH, VT, MA, and CT) for a water quality monitoring program testing for chloride. The watershed-wide chloride monitoring program is in partnership with the Izaak Walton League of America and aims to provide data about chloride levels in our waterways. Volunteers can sign up here.

Chloride sampling has begun as of October 2025 and will go through April 1, 2026.

Why Chloride?

New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut are all part of the Northeastern "salt belt" that employs various strategies to de-ice roads in winter, including pre-wetting with salt brine, using snow-fighting vehicles with calibrated spreaders, and applying different types of salt based on temperature and storm conditions.

Chloride is the main ingredient in road salt. As rain or snowmelt flows into our waterways, this chloride goes with it. Unfortunately, this can harm plants and animals in the water that are not used to elevated chloride levels. Testing chloride levels can help raise awareness of the impacts of road salt and provide information on the types and extents of impacts on our aquatic wildlife. 

Volunteers will receive testing kits in the mail and will upload their results onto the Izaak Walton League of America’s Clean Water Hub. Anyone will be able to see and use the data from their testing site. The data will also be uploaded to CRC’s Is It Clean website. This website is the best place to see data from CRC’s other water quality monitoring efforts, including E. coli results for many locations throughout the watershed. CRC staff will help volunteers participating in the new chloride program to choose a monitoring site and will answer any questions. 

“Road salt is a major water quality issue in the northeastern US. Many people have asked over the years if we can monitor the impacts of road salt, and this is a really great way to get that started. Since it's not limited by needing to get samples to a lab, volunteers throughout the entire watershed can easily participate and contribute to this community science effort,” says Ryan O’Donnell, Water Quality Program Manager at CRC.   

Interested volunteers can sign up on VOMO: https://ctriver.vomo.org/opportunity/road-salt-monitoring-2025-2026

Contact: 

Melissa Langley, CRC Lab and Monitoring Coordinator 

mlangley@ctriver.org