Continuous Monitoring Of Turbidity In Ohio Rivers Using Modified Sidestream Method

In a collaboration between YSI Inc. and the Miami Conservancy District in Southwest Ohio, the water quality of the Mad and Stillwater Rivers in the Dayton, Ohio, area is continuously monitored at gage stations using a sidestream method. The general measurement of turbidity in this “processtype” application correlates turbidity with conductivity during rainfall events.

Gage houses have been fitted with a vessel into which river water is pumped continuously and then discharged back into the river. The vessel is not sealed; instead it uses a drain stem which assures that river water is not discharged until the vessel is full. This method allows the insertion of both the sampling filter of an automatic sampler and a multiparameter sonde, which contains sensors for temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, blue-green algae, and turbidity.