Water Quality Training and Certification Process

Volunteers need to collect data approximately every two weeks between May and October to help assess lake health. This data is submitted at the end of the season — mailed to us by November 1st. LSM staff review the data and enter any that has not already been entered digitally. The data is compiled and sent to the Maine DEP, which then creates the individual lake reports, which are published in the spring.

We host the data quality assurance reviewed data on our Lakes of Maine website.

Unreviewed data is hosted on our live data portal.

Criteria for Becoming a Volunteer Water Quality Monitor

Volunteer water quality monitors are accepted into the program with the following provisions, many of which are required for Quality Assurance and Quality Control purposes:

• The number of volunteers who monitor water quality on an individual lake is generally limited by the size of the body of water. If a lake is already being monitored, a new volunteer may be trained as an “alternate”, or in some cases, to partner with the existing volunteer. On large, multiple-basin lakes, it is often beneficial to have several volunteers involved. Please contact the LSM office if you have questions about whether or not there is a need for additional volunteers on your lake of interest.
• Volunteers must watch instructional videos and complete several quizzes related to the training format.
• Volunteers must attend training and certification workshop before collecting and submitting data. Workshops are offered in the spring through summer.
• LSM provides each lake with one Secchi disk with calibrated tape and a viewing scope. Volunteers who are monitoring that lake are expected to maintain the equipment and to return it to the LSM if they leave the program, or pass it along to their replacement monitor, if one is available. LSM does not provide DO meters but has a meter that can be rented if a person or lake association is in-between meters (supply chain issues have slowed the delivery of meters for up to a year before).
• Volunteers should plan on taking Secchi disk transparency readings at least twice monthly (approximately every two weeks) between May and October, and be able to make a multiple-year commitment to monitoring. DO readings need to be taken at least once each month.
• Secchi volunteers must attend an in-person re-certification workshop at least once every three years, unless they test annually with the online Secchi Simulator.  If monitors test annually with the online Secchi Simulator, then they only need to get recertified in person every 6 years. DO monitors require annual recertification.
• Volunteer monitors must have access to a boat, a strong anchor, and — in most cases — a motor. Secchi disk readings and DO readings are generally taken at the deepest point in the lake basin.