Water Quality Testing and Citizen Scientists

I am sure you are not alone if you feel that your efforts to protect or improve the waters of Florida are ineffective, unimportant or not impactful. It is easy to become discouraged but there are many ways to increase the power of your words and actions.  I am fairly new to environmental conservation and only now learning how many organizations are already in place and working to achieve some measure of  improvement. 

My neighbor, Bob Mills, and I were informed of a water quality testing program under the auspices of the Watershed Coalition or WWALS. We have seen the decline in river and spring quality. We wanted to help document the trends in changing river chemistry.

  WWALS is an anagram for the rivers Withlacoochee, Willacoochee,  Alapaha, Little Santa Fe, and Suwannee. WWALS advocates for conservation and stewardship of the surface waters and groundwater of the entire Suwannee River Basin and Estuary, in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities. 

WWALS has been building an extensive data basis of water quality across all of the rivers noted above. With the assistance of  Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, Volunteers are trained to perform chemical testing of water quality. Testing equipment and a means of uploading formatted test data is provided to certified volunteers.

The test procedures are exacting but simple. The time date and location of the sample is logged. Weather and water conditions are noted. Photos document the location and conditions. Air and water temperature are recorded. Testing for pH, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity are performed twice to standard procedure and must fall within a narrow error range. 

Bacterial testing is done to determine the level of pathogens in the sample. This test is especially relevant to human health and safety.

Water testers have helped to identify pollution points which were subsequently removed after presentation of the data. The data base provides a long term view of trends across time and the entire watershed. These trends add traction to environmental legislation and to help educate people about the declining quality of their water.

As an individual my voice is limited. As a citizen scientist my data expands the scope and impact of recommendations to improve our springs and rivers. There are additional organizations collecting test data. The Florida Springs Institutes’ Springwatch program (SpringsWatch – Florida Springs Institute) and The Florida Lake Watch . (Florida Lake Watch – University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences – UF/IFAS)