San Diego Coastkeeper


Information

Watershed Monitoring Program Objectives

  1. Assess the health of San Diego County waterways through monthly water sampling events and comprehensive environmental data collection.
  2. Foster citizen involvement in pollution abatement and source tracking.
  3. Share water quality data widely with project partners and the public.
  4. Provide interpreted data in an easy to understand, transparent way available on the web.
  5. Empower the public to make informed decisions about personal water contact based on up-to-date information readily available.
  6. Educate the public regarding water quality issues and daily activities that contribute to, or prevent water pollution.
  7. Incorporate new strategies to address citizen polluting behaviors such as Community Based Social Marketing and Community Enhancement projects.
Program Successes
  • Six years of citizen volunteer watershed monitoring in San Diego County
  • 300 Program volunteer participants, yearly, including students from regional colleges and universities
  • Over 1,500 volunteers trained to date
  • All 11 San Diego County Watersheds monitored monthly, year round
  • Successful collaboration with 13 project partners
  • Scientifically-sound data series backed by QA/QC standards
  • Acting coordinating body of the San Diego Citizen Watershed Monitoring Consortium
  • Coordinated World Water Monitoring Day events in San Diego County for six years in a row, engaging over 1,300 students from San Diego, Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, Poland, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.


World Water Monitoring Day

World Water Monitoring Day is an international outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world. Since its inception in 2002, more than 80,000 people have participated in 50 countries. The San Diego Citizen Watershed Monitoring Consortium coordinates the WWMD efforts in San Diego County, countries with San Diego Sister School locations, and Tijuana, Mexico. In 2006, over three hundred student volunteer water monitors collected water quality data in 6 different countries. In 2007, over five hundred student volunteer water monitors collected water quality data in seven different countries.

Access Citizen Monitoring Data

Citizen Monitoring data is now available on-line. Click here to access the maps, data reports and charts. The data portal contains field screening data collected throughout 2006 by volunteers that were trained in accordance with State Water Resource Control Board and Environmental Protection Agency field methods.

Please note that the maps are working prototypes (last updated in December 2006), and we are currently soliciting feedback from the public in order to improve these maps. If you have specific feedback, please click here to send an e-mail to Karen Franz, SD Coastkeeper’s Watershed Monitoring Program Director.

These data were collected as a part of a Prop. 13 grant, in partnership with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Diego State University and San Diego Stream Team. Additional partners to this effort include The San Diego County Airport Authority, San Diego Surfrider and the Golden State Flycasters.

To volunteer for citizen monitoring, please send an e-mail to Lillian, who coordinates volunteers for water monitoring activities.

To access Water Monitoring Data through our Interactive Mapping System or to review the latests reports and studies, please visit Resources, Our Water section of our website: Click Here to Access