Peruque Creek Watershed Sampling

On August 14, 2024, the LMVP conducted a watershed-wide sampling of Peruque Creek in Warren and St. Charles counties. With the help of volunteers from the Lake St. Louis community, the city of Wentzville, and Missouri Stream Team, we sampled 28 sites in the watershed. You can view the map and see photos of the sampling sites on our Google Map.

The Peruque Creek watershed with sampling sites.

All volunteers met at the Lake St. Louis Community Clubhouse to select their sampling sites, collect their sampling supplies, and participate in a brief training session. Some folks sampled in the creek while others used devices to sample from bridges. Nearly everyone avoided the rain, arriving back at the clubhouse by 1pm for a lunch of chips and sandwiches, graciously provided by the Lake St. Louis Community Association.

Sampling the entire watershed in a short period of time will document the current water quality of Peruque Creek and help us to narrow down the location of possible pollution sources.

LMVP staff processed the water samples on site, then hauled everything back to the lab in Columbia. In the lab, we will be measuring nutrients (several forms of both phosphorus and nitrogen), suspended solids, chlorophyll, conductivity, chloride, and two cyanotoxins.

Samples should be analyzed in a few months. Watch for the results in a future newsletter!

Volunteers and LMVP staff preparing supplies for the day. Jerry Harris photo.

LMVP Staff processing water samples.
From left: Karson Miller, Sarah Smith, Tony Thorpe. Jamie Paige photo.