Bennett Spring Stream Team To Host Water Quality Event

Bennett Spring Stream Team #5462 will meet on July 20 at 1:00 p.m. to discuss the water quality of the Bennett Spring.

Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting at the nature center at Bennett Spring State Park for a short water quality lesson, which will be followed by a hands-on activity around the Bennett Spring.

Missouri State Parks says in a news release that clean, safe, usable water is essential to all life. Pollution can contribute to degrading water quality. Protecting and ensuring the health of our watersheds is everyone’s responsibility. It takes a collaborative network of dedicated citizens all working together to understand and raise awareness about water issues to ensure water quality.

Bennett Spring Stream Team performed water quality and invertebrate testing and reportedlyfound that Bennett Spring is of the highest quality springs in Missouri. The team also found sensitive organisms, such as Caddisfly, Hellgrammites, Mayfly Nymphs, Gilled Snails, Riffle Beetles and Water Penny, that require good water quality to survive.

Missouri has approximately 110,000 miles of streams that provide recreation and drinking water. The Bennett Spring releases over a 100 million gallons of water a day into the Niangua River. If you are interested in learning more about the invertebrates, wildlife, water quality or simply just want to exercise, join park staff at the nature center.

Future dates for the stream team meetings are August 17 and September 21.

Bennett Spring State Park is located on 26250 Highway 64A in Lebanon. For more information, call the nature center at 417-532-3925 or visit mostateparks.com.