Welcome to Community Science

The Community Science Institute (CSI) is a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization whose mission is to empower local people to understand their environment and manage their resources sustainably, particularly water. We recruit, train and support groups of volunteers to partner with our state-certified water quality testing lab and monitor streams and lakes over the long term. Data produced by our monitoring partnerships with local volunteers fills gaps left by federal, state and academic programs. Monitoring results, available free of charge in the database section of this website, help position local governments to manage water resources and distribute costs equitably among stakeholders. By participating directly in the scientific process of collecting management-quality data, volunteers become knowledgeable stewards of their watersheds. With generous financial support from county and municipal governments and local foundations in Tompkins County, New York, CSI has partnered with seven groups of volunteers to collect over 25,000 pieces of certified water quality data on Cayuga Lake and its tributary streams since 2003. Our data make it possible not only to calculate sediment and nutrient loading to the lake but to surmise how upstream areas contribute to loading. In addition to impacts from agriculture and residential development, CSI has begun partnering with volunteer groups to monitor local New York streams for impacts from the shale gas industry and "hydrofracking." While the revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Statement (SGEIS) released July-August 2011 is an improvement over the 2009 draft, substantial risks to streams, lakes and groundwater remain. CSI proposes partnering with volunteers from counties across New York's Southern Tier -- the region of New York that will be the likely initial focus of drilling once the SGEIS is finalized sometime in 2012 -- to monitor streams and lakes with the goal of creating pre-drilling baselines of water quality. Baselines can serve as benchmarks for assessing both the cumulative impacts from the shale gas industry over the long term and the immediate impacts from catastrophic events such as accidental spills and well casing failures. CSI has offered baseline testing of private drinking water wells since 2009. Baseline testing establishes the levels of 20 "signature chemicals" that are most likely to change in the event of contamination from hydraulic fracturing fluids and shale gas waste. We recently began asking our private clients for permission to use their test results to create an anonymous online pool of groundwater data with the goal of establishing pre-drilling regional baselines of groundwater quality. CSI aims to establish regional water quality baselines as part of our nonprofit mission to educate and empower citizens to understand their local water resources and to manage them sustainably.

13 January 2010 0 Comments

Mission Statement

The mission of the Community Science Institute (CSI) is to foster and support environmental monitoring by volunteers in order to educate the public about natural resources and to collect scientifically credible data for use in protecting the environment and managing natural resources sustainably.

To fulfill our mission with respect to water resources in our region, we broker partnerships between volunteer groups and local government agencies to monitor streams and lakes in the Cayuga Lake watershed and beyond. We recruit and train volunteers, coordinate their monitoring activities, and assure that data produced with volunteer support meet the standards of good science as well as the data quality objectives of local stakeholders. We operate a certified water quality testing laboratory (ELAP #11790) where water samples collected by volunteers are analyzed for bacteria, nutrients, solids and minerals. We archive raw data in MS Excel spreadsheets and make the files publicly available on our website. We offer analyses and interpretations of the water quality of lakes and their feeder streams in the form of narrative summaries based on graphs and tables of key chemical, physical and microbiological parameters. Graphs, tables and summaries of results are posted on our website and updated regularly in order to provide timely information for local decision-making on a range of environmental policy issues.

13 January 2010 Comments Off

Is Community Science the Same as Citizen Science?

Not quite. Citizen science is growing in popularity among researchers as a way to enlarge the scope of scientific inquiry by engaging volunteers to help collect data. Citizen science projects tend to be regional, national or international in scope. They may involve observational monitoring, the testing of scientific hypotheses, or a combination of the two. Audiences for citizen science projects are generally other research scientists and government agencies at the state, national and international level.

Community science differs from citizen science in some respects. Community science projects focus on local issues and local government. They prioritize observational monitoring and the use of data for science-based management of local resources over hypothesis testing and publication in scientific journals. Community science adheres to the scientific method, and projects may contribute to new scientific knowledge. However, creating new knowledge is secondary to gathering data within a known scientific framework and using results to manage local resources sustainably.

11 January 2010 Comments Off

Community Science and Local Policy Decisions

Following are examples of local policy decisions that may be facilitated by community science investigations of water quality, with specific reference to the Cayuga Lake watershed:

Policy Issue Water Quality Data from Community Science Monitoring Program
Improve management, upgrade, or replace sewage treatment plant (STP) Levels of fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria, phosphorus, nitrogen, toxic chemicals in STP effluent
Build new sewage treatment plant in Lansing or connect to Cayuga Heights plant Levels of E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria in lake water near lake-front homes with on-site septic systems
Safety of swimming in streams and lake Levels of E. coli or fecal coliform
Promote tourism Provide “report card” on water quality in the Cayuga Lake watershed and make it available on the internet
Meet state mandates for regulating stormwater impacts, including public outreach and education Engage volunteers in monitoring activities; use data from volunteer monitoring partnerships to demonstrate compliance with mandates
Upgrade City of Ithaca water treatment plant on Six Mile Creek or switch to Bolton Point water supply on Cayuga Lake Pattern of sediment, bacteria and nutrients along Six Mile Creek; water quality relative to other streams and Cayuga Lake; identify and manage source(s) of elevated chlorination by-products
Dredge Cayuga Inlet and Cayuga Lake; projected cost Estimate annual loading of sediment by combining water quality data with USGS flow data
Imposition of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements for phosphorus and sediment loading to southern end of Cayuga Lake Annual empirical estimates of phosphorus and sediment loading provide basis for negotiating TMDLs and allocating TMDL burden among municipalities