WATER QUALITY MONITORING

• Position: Water Resources Intern
• Employer: Twin Cities Metropolitan Council
• Location: St. Paul, MN
• Time: May 2019 – August 2019

The Metropolitan Council is involved with various urban planning issues across the Twin Cities metro region including affordable housing, public transportation, and wastewater treatment. Their water resources department performs surface water quality monitoring to ensure that the treated wastewater being discharged to rivers is within their permit requirements and having a minimal impact on the river.

As a water resources intern at the Met Council, I got to help out with a variety of water quality monitoring projects. A large part of this position was collecting water samples from local rivers and streams and delivering them to the lab for analysis. Most sample collection can be done off the side of a bridge or from shore but once a week I got to head out on the Mississippi in a boat! Hard to beat that for an office!

Other experiences included:

• Calibrating instrumentation at monitoring stations set up to take continuous measurements.
• Learning how to take groundwater level measurements and water quality samples from monitoring wells.
• Researching ways to prioritize stream monitoring efforts and presenting my findings at council-wide intern events.

I was already extremely interested in surface water before this position, but returning to the same monitoring sites along local rivers and streams throughout the whole summer is what prompted me to really fall in love with rivers and streams. I love learning about processes and rivers are great because they’re always changing and you can see multiple processes in action! (Bonus points to shallow rivers and streams I can walk around in while watching sediment transport, finding pools, and picking up insects.)