NepRWA Receives State Grant to Support Water Quality Monitoring
The Boston-South Shore Water Quality Monitoring Coalition—which includes the Neponset River Watershed Association (NepRWA), North and South Rivers Watershed Association (NSRWA), and the Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research (CSCR)—has been awarded a Water Quality Monitoring Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP).
This funding, together with support from NepRWA members, helps sustain NepRWA’s ongoing water quality monitoring programs, including our Community Water Monitoring Network (CWMN) and X-Cel Conservation Corps water sampling initiatives. The grant will help cover the costs of water quality supplies and equipment, as well as staff time for training volunteer water samplers, analyzing and interpreting data, performing QA/QC, and submitting results to MassDEP.
Monitoring will include bacteria, nutrients, and other physicochemical parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and pH.
The grant also supports a collaborative workshop series in partnership with the North Boston-Metrowest Coalition. The first workshop was held on February 10 and was open to all watershed associations and water quality organizations across Massachusetts, with the goal of promoting greater regional collaboration. Presentations included:
- Sean McCanty, NepRWA’s River Restoration Director, on database management
- Alex Mansfield, NSRWA’s Watershed Ecologist and the South Shore Regional Coordinator for the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program, on Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) development
- Jill Carr, MassBays, on the MassWateR R Package
This grant is part of a larger state program, through which the Healey-Driscoll Administration awarded $200,000in Water Quality Monitoring Grants to five watershed coalitions across Massachusetts in March 2026. Read the press release.
