Checking In with @waterkeepermark and Hannah McDonald from Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
For the Checking In series, Mark Mattson speaks with Hannah McDonald from Lake Ontario Waterkeeper‘s Kingston Water Monitoring Hub. As the Citizen Science Monitoring Hub Coordinator at the Kingston hub, Hannah routinely samples Kingston’s waterfront, analyzes the water samples, and shares the water quality data with you on Swim Guide.
MM: Tell me a little about yourself and your connections to Lake Ontario.
HM: I am the Citizen Science Water Monitoring Hub Coordinator in Kingston, Ontario. This is my second summer working with Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Swim Drink Fish. I’m very excited to be contributing to Waterkeeper’s work in Kingston!
As someone who was born and raised in Kingston, Lake Ontario has always been a large part of my life; I grew up swimming, paddling, rowing, and sailing on the lake. Although I’ve since moved away from Kingston for school, I do my best to spend summers here because nothing rivals a summer on Kingston’s waterfront I feel extremely fortunate to live on Lake Ontario, but also to be part of communities that recognize the importance of our connections to the lake and are working to protect and improve these connections.
Hannah McDonald swimming in Lake Ontario.
MM: How connected do you feel the City of Kingston and the surrounding community is to Lake Ontario?
HM: The Kingston community is very well connected to Lake Ontario. We’re very fortunate to live in a city that has such an amazing waterfront. It is also a community with dedicated advocates constantly working for improved waterfront access and infrastructure. With places like the Gord Edgar Downie Pier, I think Kingston’s waterfront is a great example of the impact people can have on their local waterways. That being said, many Kingstonians still face barriers accessing their waterfront. I think the next step for our community is to ensure everyone is able to benefit from access to Lake Ontario.
MM: Can you tell us about your role in sampling water quality at Hospital Beach and Olympic Harbour Beach in Kingston? Where are the results posted?
HM: Part of my job this summer is to sample the water at Olympic Harbour Beach and Hospital Beach. We test the water quality to make sure the water at those sites meets provincial water quality standards. Because we see so many people in the water at these beaches, we want to make sure publicly-available water quality information exists for these places. I take water samples from both beaches once a week. I analyze those samples at our lab in the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston by Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. Once I get the results, I upload the information to the Swim Guide app, so it’s available for everyone to see.
Water quality data on Swim Guide: Hospital Beach and Olympic Harbour Beach.
Hannah McDonald collects a water sample for the Kingston Water Monitoring Hub.
MM: Has the health pandemic impacted your work this summer?
HM: The pandemic has affected work for everyone, and the Kingston Water Monitoring Hub is no exception. The start of our sampling season was delayed, but the amazing team at Swim Drink Fish was able to get things up and running despite all the obstacles. Also, our physical distancing protocols have made it challenging to involve volunteers in the water sampling process the way we would normally like to. We’ve also learned a lot from this COVID-19 pandemic. I did most of my water sampling training virtually. It proved this training can be done, and done well, from a distance. Being able to train volunteers virtually really increases the reach that citizen science initiatives can have.
MM: If you were a fish, what would it be?
HM: If I were a fish in Lake Ontario, I would be a bigeye chub. Partly because I love the name and partly because I would want those big eyes to check out the underwater views!
MM: Is there a role for citizen science in Kingston and the Thousand Islands?
HM: There is definitely a role for more citizen science in Kingston and the Thousand Islands (and around the country). I’ve been so lucky to learn about citizen science this summer from some great water scientists at Swim Drink Fish. I am very excited by the potential this monitoring hub has. The initiative provides a unique opportunity for volunteers to become educated about water science and contribute to the science in a meaningful way. I was very excited Kingston was chosen as a site to set up a citizen science hub and my work this summer has shown me there is great potential for the citizen science movement to grow in the Kingston area. One of the really great things about the initiative is how accessible it is - all you really need is a group of people with an interest in protecting their local waterways and connecting their community to the water. If you have this (and Kingston definitely does!) the rest can be taught. You don’t need an extensive science background or access to a fancy lab to be able to do the water quality monitoring work. We can teach you how to interpret water quality results from our lab.
Here are the test results from Olympic Harbour Beach, for samples collected on August 12, 2020:
Here are the test results from Hospital Beach, for samples collected on August 12, 2020:
Visit Swim Guide for weekly updates on water quality test results for Olympic Harbour Beach and Hospital Beach.
Read more from the Checking In with @waterkeepermark series here.
Connect with us on Twitter, @LOWaterkeeper and @waterkeepermark.
