Some Monticello High School Students have come up with a device to test water quality in the Rivanna River,
Environmental Science Teacher Chris Stanek says the device measures water temperature, air temperature and pH every five seconds, then records those measurements onto a memory card that can upload the data to a computer.
Stanek say the devices development was sparked by a sewage leak at Lake Monticello, which went unnoticed for months because they only check the water twice a year.
“We could collect data on a regular basis and local residents could view the data and see if something was off, and hopefully someone could catch it within the day or even hour,” he said.
Stanek says he hopes to gain enough funding to have his students create permanent devices that measure more factors, like dissolved oxygen and conductivity.