[Carol ArmstrongParticipant]

Today is 3/1/19.  Please note that sensor stations without turbidity sensors should be visited regularly to ascertain fouling of sensors.

SL172 (Indian Field Br) is a concern because the turbidity of >1400 NTU indicates sensors are buried in some way, and turbidity has been >1000 NTU since last October.

SL118 (Wissahickon) battery should be checked for moisture as it is frequently <3.7 v.

SL117 (Sandy Run) battery is declining, now <3.7 v.

In the chart, sensor stations without reports (no checks) are not functioning.

[Carol ArmstrongParticipant]

Today’s report is for 3/4/19.

SL128 began to transmit again with one signal on 2/28/19, and again on 3/4, but CTD values indicate possible damage to CTD sensor.

[Jim MooreParticipant]

I checked SL149 today, 3/11, and noticed no data had been reported in the last 48 hours.  Further checking indicated that reporting has been erratic since 2/26/19.  I checked the station this morning and the various leds seemed to indicate a bad case for Atrial Flutter so I performed a cardioversion (reset button) and now the data seems to be reporting normally i.e. every 5 minutes.

Question:  Can I check to see if the missing data was recorded on the sd card?  I plan to swap out the card and reset the mayfly – any problem with this?  My understanding is that the Mayfly should be reset after a card swap to run setupLogFile()

[David BresslerParticipant]

Jim,

Yes crosschecking with the SD card data is the way to go.

When you swap SD cards you should:  1) turn the logger off, 2) remove the SD card, 3) insert a new blank SD card, 4) turn the logger back on.

[Carol ArmstrongParticipant]

Today’s report is on 3/11/19.

On 3/10, change from EST time to Daylight Savings Time caused abnormal signals shown on online data for all sensors, which occurred at different times in different places, but generally between 1am and 3am.  Shannon Hicks reported no concern because it only affected how the online data is displayed, but did not affect the data on the memory cards, and data will be continuous.

Has SL 131-Little Lehigh just lost cellular signal as it hasn’t transmitted since 3/2; or has the station been turned off or damaged?

SL169-Cherry Creek sensors are usually cleared, but on 3/7/19 they  became packed in; in 10 minutes turbidity went from 3.7 NTU to 1325 NTU, and has remained >1300 NTU.

Many stations have become fouled after the last storm event, and most need to be cleaned.

[Jim MooreParticipant]

Dave-

The data from 2/26/19 is intact on the sd card.  Maybe we can talk about uploading the missing data to fill in the blanks on Wednesday.

[David BresslerParticipant]

Jim,

Yes that sounds good.  Unfortunately, Monitor My Watershed is not yet able to accommodate SD card data uploads but hopefully it will soon.

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone, Dave thought it would be useful to others if I shared what’s been going on with our sensor SL105- Paulinskill, Newton NJ

The turbidity readings inexplicably skyrocketed to about 230NTU which seemed strange because our normal NTU readings are usually below 20. Even after cleaning the sensor multiple times, the turbidity readings stayed at the same level. After sharing some pictures with Shannon, she thinks the high readings are due to a black coating on the sensor and it will need to be cleaned with an acid solution.

I’ve attached pictures to compare- our black coated sensor and a picture of a clean sensor in which you should be able to see the silver “eye”

[Jake LemonParticipant]

Any sense of what caused the black coating in the first place?

[Shannon HicksParticipant]

It seems to be an oxide that collects on anything in the water, but only in certain streams.  When it happens, you’ll see a black coating on the body of the sensor, the pvc pipe, the cables, the submerged part of the staff gage, basically anything in the water.  It doesn’t happen too often, and depends on the chemistry of your stream’s water.  We’ll be checking every sensor carefully this spring as we make our site maintenance visits to all stations, and after that will have a better idea of how prevalent it is.

[Author]

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