SABATTUS – Staff from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Regional Laboratory will begin a sediment oxygen demand study of the Sabattus River today.

EPA’s Tim Bridges, Tom Faber, Marcel Belaval and Meridith Decelle will collect sediments in the Sabattus River for analysis of the sediment oxygen demand, total organic carbon and grain size.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection determined last year that the river had a low level of dissolved oxygen, a condition that is caused by pollution.

Sediment oxygen demand studies investigate the rate that dissolved oxygen is removed from the water due to the decomposition of organic material in the sediments.

Maine DEP will use sediment oxygen demand rates to determine whether the sediment is taking oxygen out of the river. If that is the case, the DEP will try to find the source of the pollution and take corrective action, said the EPA’s Tim Bridges.

EPA staff will set up a mobile laboratory for on-site analysis at the Sabattus wastewater treatment plant and will collect data from six stations along the river between Sabattus and Lisbon.