I was happy and heartened by your recent lead article about high school students participating in a study of water quality. The report was most accurate and informative.

For many years, the borough of Oceanport has been most supportive of its Water Watch Committee’s mission to monitor water quality in our watershed area. Come rain or shine, every month we take samples of the Shrewsbury River at nine different sites and analyze them for turbidity, pH, salinity, and temperature; and for levels of dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates and fecal colonies. We work with citizen and government groups in our common goal to help keep our waterways clear and clean. Progress is being made, but there is much work yet to be done.

We are all volunteers, and several high school students have worked with us in the past. Recently, we have unfortunately lost them mainly to college careers.

Your lead article indeed should interest young people in environmental issues, and we take this opportunity to suggest they come join us. Welcoming them is not enough; we’d love to have them.

William "Doc" Kaloss

Acting secretary

Oceanport Water

Watch Committee