Water Quality Improvement
Since 2007 the City of Keene has been partnering with Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD) as part of the Source-To-Sea clean-up effort with the Connecticut River Watershed Council. The Source-to-Sea clean-up happens once a year in the fall.
With City support, the CCCD has also obtained grant funding through the State of New Hampshire's Conservation Grant program to install rain gardens for stormwater pollution prevent, two of which have been installed.
Non-point source pollution is the term environmentalists use to describe all the pollutants that runoff into the river that are from many different places, like fertilizer and pesticides from lawns or oil and gas from the roads. Most people don't realize it, but the open storm drain grates in roads drain unfiltered into the nearest stream!
Bacteria are always present in nature, but some types may be pathogenic (disease-causing) and/or may be an indication of other sources of pollution. City workers and volunteers have collected water samples in Beaver Brook and the storm drainage system in order to track down and fix problems, leading to improvements in water quality. Additional water quality sampling will be on-going to identify problems and their source.
The City has also developed flyers to help inform pet owners of the importance of keeping pet wastes away from storm drains and the brook.