Author: srs0029

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How to: Establish a Beach Site in Swim Guide

Its heating up and the summer months are upon us! As Alabamians go out and hit the beaches and rivers this summer for swimming, paddling, and fishing, it is important that water quality data is easily accessible and up-to-date. In addition to the Alabama Water Watch public data tools, an application called Swim Guide is another useful tool for determining if it is safe to swim.

Your data and observations can help let people know if it is safe to swim this summer! Learn how you can get involved by reading below.

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Meet Our Water Watchers: Carl Woida!

Carl Woida has been a volunteer monitor with Alabama Water Watch for 19 years. When asked to share about his monitoring experience, he wrote a very thoughtful reflection about his time as a volunteer. We are excited to share his story. Read on to learn more about Carl, his monitoring, lessons learned, and why he enjoys being involved with the AWW Program!

My name is Carl Woida and I have been a Volunteer Monitor with AWW since 2001. I have two monitoring sites on the Paint Rock River, a major tributary of the Tennessee River. My monitoring group’s name is the Scott Branch Water Watch. Scott Branch is a small stream feeding the Paint Rock River. I am 75 years old and to date, since my initial certification in 2001, I have been recertified 10 times and have submitted 276 chemistry reports to AWW.

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Meet Our Water Watchers: Janne Debes!

Janne Debes started volunteering with AWW when she was certified as a Bacteriological Monitor in winter 2016. Since then, she has joined several monitoring groups, including Save Our Saugahatchee, Lake Watch of Lake Martin (where she serves on the board), and the USFS Tuskegee National Forest group. She has collected a total of over 320 Water Chemistry and 110 Bacteriological Monitoring data records. It’s easy to see why she has been named the Alabama Water Watch Monitor of the Year two years in a row!

Janne accepts her Monitor of the Year Award for 2018, made by Laura Bell (left of Janne) of Rabbit Fish Ceramics.

Because Janne is so AWWesome, we thought you would enjoy learning a little more about her,  or should we say you would like to Meet Our Wonderful Water Watcher.  

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USFS CitSci Project Workshops

We have wrapped up our final USFS CitSci Project Workshop for 2020!

AWW and the National Forests in Alabama held three water quality monitoring workshops in the Bankhead, Tuskegee , and Conecuh National Forests. We would like to thank everyone who attended these workshops, and especially all of the the project participants who have picked up sites to monitor!

Tuskegee National Forest workshop participants braving the rain and cold!
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How To: Confirm if your data record was submitted successfully to AWW when entering data online.

We have recently had a few volunteers who have entered data online, but have not seen their data on the Data from Tables or Data from Maps. This could be because it was not submitted successfully into the AWW Server. We want to help you ensure that you have successfully submitted your data to AWW. Follow the steps below to learn how to check if we received your data!

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AWW Data to Action: How the Alabama Department of Environmental Management Uses AWW Data

By: Mona Dominguez and Sydney Zinner

Alabama Water Watch volunteers spend hours collecting, entering, and analyzing data each month with the intention of improving water quality in Alabama. It is important that our volunteers and supporters have a better understanding of how this valuable data is used and who exactly is using it.

Volunteer Monitors Janne and Gary test for Total Hardness.
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