Welcome to the Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) River Guardians Programme. As a River Guardian you will be collecting valuable and much needed information on the water quality of the Annapolis River. In return for your efforts you will learn how to perform numerous tests used to evaluate water quality, learn how to interpret the results of your testing, and gain an understanding of the many factors that influence water quality. The information you will be obtaining will lead to an assessment of the water quality of the Annapolis River, identification of existing or potential problems and, if necessary, recommendations for actions to improve the water quality of the Annapolis River and, through subsequent monitoring, an idea of how successful these actions have been. The data collected will be made available to university, local, provincial and federal government agencies, and other groups having an interest or responsibility for establishing guidelines and programmes relating to water quality in the Annapolis River. Hopefully you, as an informed and knowledgeable citizen, will also become involved in decision making processes that concern the Annapolis River.

Financial support for this programme is being provided by the Environmental Partners Fund of Environment Canada, and a variety of local business organizations who are the 'partners'. You also are a partner through the contribution of your time and effort. The funding has been made available based partly on the realization that extensive and consistent long-term monitoring is essential to realistically evaluate water quality trends, and that if left solely to government agencies the cost would be prohibitive. As a result regulatory agencies are encouraging the public to take on a greater responsibility for ensuring that our water bodies are maintained in a healthy state.

Evaluation of water quality involves measurement of a number of variables using standard procedures. This manual describes the logistics of the monitoring programme and provides details of parameters and techniques that are to be used in the CARP River Guardians Monitoring Programme. The concepts behind the techniques, as well as in the interpretation of the data collected, are not very difficult to understand and there is no reason why collecting this information need be left solely to trained scientists.

This manual is printed on waterproof paper and can be carried to the field. You will probably find, however, that after a few trips the procedures will become routine, and you will seldom have need to refer to the manual when carrying out the various field and laboratory procedures. However, it is always a good idea to have the manual nearby.