Special thanks to our 2025 Environmental Science & Stewardship Fellows, Heath Albert, Ry Emmert, Kenna McConnachie, and Juan Soler-Ramos.
This past summer, our Environmental Science & Stewardship Fellows dove into some new water quality sampling. Their data collection will help MyRWA better understand the effects of stormwater and bacteria pollution on the Aberjona River, Shannon Beach, and the Alewife Wetland Reservation. Part of this pollutant monitoring work was completed in partnership with Notheastern’s Tian Research Lab— whose research goal consists of identifying environmental contaminants and assessing their human health and ecosystem risk.
The fellows completed four sampling events at nine different sites in the watershed, testing phosphorus and bacteria levels during wet and dry weather conditions (pictured below).
Our Tufts University Tisch Summer Fellow, Kenna McConnachie, reflected on her personal connection with water sampling at Shannon Beach, as she mentions it’s one of the few places that Tufts students go to cool down in the summer.
“Unfortunately, Shannon Beach often closes because of high bacteria levels. I got to conduct grab samples at Shannon and the Aberjona River to help determine the cause of pollution and closures. In the future, we hope Shannon Beach can be open all summer long!”
Kenna taking a grab sample from Shannon Beach.
Two of the nine sampling sites were located in the Alewife Wetland Reservation. Our Forest Foundation Fellow, Heath Albert, reflected on the importance of water sampling here.
“It’s been a unique experience to actually test how effective the Alewife stormwater wetland infrastructure is at filtering out pollution. I feel like we’re making a real difference by adding to 50+ years of data that we can leverage for policy change in the watershed and beyond!”
Andy, MyRWA Water Quality Program Manager, with the summer fellows at the Alewife Wetland Reservation.
Our summer fellows also helped identify and catalogue additional bacteria sampling sites of interest along the Aberjona River. Determining which sites are able to be sampled at— looking at variables like water flow, land accessibility, and ease of finding the site— will help MyRWA’s water quality team determine the direction of sampling projects in the future.
Thank you to our 2025 summer fellows: Heath, Juan, Kenna, and Ry, for your water sampling efforts and for sharing your reflections on your exerience. We couldn’t have done this work without your help!
Fellows analyzing water samples in the MyRWA office.
