Having chosen our project before coming to Princeton,  first task of the Massachusetts and Florida teams, was to meet with our advisor to narrow down our focus.  In the initial brainstorming session of the participants and leaders, we decided to combine into a single team in order to pool both knowledge, expertise, and equipment . We then entered into the research/data gathering phase of our study.  This involved the use of community resources in the form of the  Stony Brook -Millstone Watershed Association.  Through telephone contact, an appointment was made and all four of us met at the watershed offices.  In our initial meeting they provided us with maps of the watershed, a list of their testing sites and the land use between sites, maps to the test sites, and agreed to let use these sites for our research.  We in turn agreed to provide the association with our results, particularly those of E. coli (fecal coliform), which they had not been testing.  Later in the institute the Director from the Watershed Association came to Princeton as part of the GREEN presentation to give a history of the watershed as well as leaving several publications for background reading material.

    During the time available we were able to take two sets of readings from each of the sites.  The first on July 9, 1997, and the second after a rainfall on July 15, 1977.  Each of these sites were tested for dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrates, phosphates, temperature, and coliform with attention to fecal coliform.  The data was compared to previous data received from the watershed association.  Additionally, soil samples were taken from each of the sites and also tested for pH, nitrates, phosphates, and potassium, in order to delineate the effect of the soil composition on the quality readings of the watershed.