AWWareness

When Alabama Water Watch was just getting started back in 1992, it operated quite differently than it does today. Bill Deutsch, AWW Director, has been in the picture since the beginning and remembers that first year of Water Watch as exciting but exhausting.   People throughout Alabama were interested and enthusiastic about the possibilities of the statewide Water Quality Monitoring Program and as a result there was a great demand for the AWW workshops. At the time AWW only offered the Chemistry Water Monitoring Certification, and there were no citizen trainers. As a result Bill and co-founder Dr. Bill Davies (BD² as Bill and Bill were called back then) were on the road for 20 weekends per year!

                   2005 Training of Trainers Workshop held at AU

Continue reading “AWW Citizen Trainers – Essential to AWW!”

Many Alabama Water Watch monitors, Association members, and staff participated in the 14th Annual Alabama Water Rally which is hosted each year by the Alabama Rivers Alliance.  This year’s Rally took place at Camp Beckwith on beautiful Weeks Bay on March 16th-18th. It was a particularly special weekend as participants celebrated several milestones of water protection for Alabama including the 15th Anniversary for Alabama Rivers Alliance (ARA), the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, and the 20th Anniversary for Alabama Water Watch (AWW). There was even a special birthday cake to commemorate the occasion.

Throughout the weekend participants were given opportunities to expand their knowledge of water policy, advocacy strategies, community organizing, and current water issues facing Alabamians by participating in concurrent sessions led by national experts.  Keynote speakers included Nancy Stoner who is the Acting Assistant Administrator for the U.S.EPA Office of Water.

Continue reading “2012 River Heroes: Bill Deutsch and Mike Mullen”

by: eric reutebuch

Radney Elementary School’s gifted student program was honored on Friday, March 1, 2012 when the Best Environmental Education Program (BEEP) Award was presented to Radney teacher, Laurie Barrett.

Continue reading “Radney Elementary wins BEEP statewide environmental ed award”

by: eric reutebuch

Dick Bronson received the 2012 W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award at a surprise award ceremony during the Lake Watch of Lake Martin annual meeting at the Elk’s Lodge on Lake Martin on Sunday, February 19th, 2012.

Continue reading “Water Watcher wins 2012 W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award”

Students from Geraldine, North Sand Mountain and Sardis high schools recently received awards for their Earth Team projects in water monitoring. Chip Blanton, FFA instructor at Fort Payne High School, trained area students in water quality monitoring techniques developed by Alabama Water Watch (AWW). AWW has worked for the past two decades developing water chemistry, bacteriological and stream biomonitoring techniques and training citizen volunteers throughout the state to become water monitors . AWW also conducts train-the-trainer workshops to train and certify volunteer trainers. Mr. Blanton was trained as an AWW trainer, and has conducted over a dozen water monitoring workshops in the Fort Payne-area.

Chip Blanton trains students in water monitoring
Click here for story

AWW personnel traveled to Radney Elementary School in Alexander City in early January to participate in an innovative environmental ed program established between the AWW citizen water monitor group, Lake Watch of Lake Martin, and the school. It has been a big hit with the students, who are now exited to learn more about the environment and the world around them.

Click here for the complete story

On Saturday, December 10th, 2011 a group of enthusiastic citizens braved the chilly but beautiful Saugahatchee Creek to learn how benthic macroinvertebrates or “aquatic bugs” can tell us a great deal about water quality. The type of water monitoring technique taught in this workshop is referred to as stream biomonitoring.  Put simply, certain aquatic bugs function as indicators of water pollution. Some types have a high tolerance for pollution; therefore if you only find that type of bug in your stream, your stream is not very healthy. However, there are others that cannot tolerate pollution; therefore if they are present you know that your water quality is good, and has been good for some time.  Stream biomonitoring is a good method for determining current and past impacts to water quality. AWW Director, Bill Deutsch was quoted in the Volunteer Monitor Newsletter saying, “If a pollution slug moves through on Monday and you monitor on Wednesday, the chemistry looks fine, but the bugs know better. They were there. They are mini-meters, 24/7.”

Biomonitor trainees sample Saugahatchee Creek for macroinvertebrates
(click here for more pictures)

Before going to the stream participants learned about the different types of aquatic bugs and what factors, particularly human impacts, affect their presence in a stream. They also learned to classify each bug into the appropriate group based on their tolerance for pollution.  Once they were at the stream they put their kick-net skills to use to collect around 100 macroinvertebrates. Finally they calculated a biotic index using the bugs collected, which indicated that this particular stretch of the Saugahatchee Creek had “excellent” water quality. 

 AWW Director, Bill Deutsch and Data Coordinator, Sergio Ruiz-Córdova led the workshop. Also present were several other AWW staff members,  undergrad and graduate level students from Auburn University, Alabama A&M and the University of Alabama in Huntsville,  municipal staff from Phenix City and Montgomery, a biology teacher, a representative of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and Riverkeepers from the Coosa and Choctawhatchee. In the words of Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper and veteran AWW trainer, Mike Mullen, “The Stream Bioassessment workshop this past Saturday was one of if not the best training workshops that I have ever participated since creation of the AWW program”!

Aquatic critters found in Saugahatchee Creek (click here for more pictures)

AWW intends to offer more opportunities for certification in biomonitoring in the coming year. If you are interested watch our website for upcoming workshops and contact us to let us know that you would like to be part of the next training event.  It’s a great opportunity to spend a day at the creek while increasing your knowledge base of aquatic ecology and expanding your water monitoring technique repertoire. 

by: eric reutebuch

Area volunteer monitoring groups began collaborative watershed-level water monitoring in the Saugahatchee and Chewacla watersheds in and around Auburn, Alabama back in 2007. Members of Save Our Saugahatchee (SOS) and Friends of Chewacla Creek and the Uphapee Watershed (CHEWUP) had been trained and certified in Bacteriological Monitoring by Alabama Water Watch (AWW), and had monitored a few sites for E. coli in the two watersheds. Concerns about sewage contamination in the Auburn-Opelika area were growing, and the watershed “blitz” sampling idea was born. Actually, the idea was adopted from another monitoring group, Lake Wedowee Property Owners Association, that had initiated watershed blitz sampling (lots of key sites throughout the watershed sampled simultaneously to provide a snapshot of watershed health) in the Lake Wedowee Watershed in 2006 (click here for Lake Wedowee story).

SOS monitor, Cliff Webber, reads plates of bacteria after incubation

Up until 2009, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) used a slightly different measure, fecal coliforms, to measure bacteria contamination in surface waters. Since the presence of E. coli, a subset of fecal coliforms, correlates more closely to the occurrence of human illness from bacteria-laden waters, ADEM switched to an E. coli-based water quality standard in December 2009. Since these relatively new water quality standards are in close agreement with the existing AWW bacteria monitoring protocols, AWW is sticking with its 200 and 600 cut-offs for continuity in citizen monitor data reporting and interpretation (below 200 E. coli/100 mL of water = safe for frequent human contact, 200-600 E. coli/100 mL of water = maximum level for infrequent human contact, and above 600 E. coli/100 mL of water = unsafe for human contact; symbolized by the green-yellow-red traffic light used on AWW bacteria graphs).

E. coli (blue colonies) measured in Pepperell Branch
in March 2010

SOS and CHEWUP monitors strategized on a sampling plan and conducted their first watershed blitz in January 2007, monitoring 26 sites in the two watersheds. Five years later, blitz sampling has grown to 40 sites on Saugahatchee and Chewacla creeks and their key tributaries.

During SOS’s annual meeting in December 2011, AWW staffer, Eric Reutebuch, presented an overview of the 2011 Bacteria Blitz results (click here to view the Powerpoint). The 2011 sampling plan had

Volunteer monitor sites during 2011 bacteria blitz sampling (click for enlarged image)

expanded by five additional sample sites on the Pepperell Branch in Opelika. This sampling was added as a part of the implementation of an ADEM-funded watershed management plan, the Saugahatchee Watershed Management Plan (SWaMP) that targets reduction of nonpoint source pollution to clean up the creek. Since Pepperell Branch was added to ADEM’s 303(d) list of polluted streams in 2010 because of excess pathogens, more intensive sampling of this tributary was proposed to aid in quantifying and sourcing bacteria contamination as a part of SWaMP implementation. Interestingly, of the 40 sites sampled in 2011, exactly half (20) were in the Saugahatchee Watershed and the other half were in the Chewacla Watershed (which was unplanned, based solely on volunteer monitor concern and effort).

Summaries of results were presented for the four seasonal bacteria blitzes in both tabular and map formats (see Powerpoint). A total of 45 “hits” (E. coli levels of 200 per 100 milliliters of water or higher) were measured out of 138 samples measured during 2011 blitz efforts (15 of the 45 hits were in the “red zone” – greater than 600 E. coli per 100 milliliters of water, which is unsafe for human contact; 30 were in the “yellow zone” – 200 to 600 E. coli per 100 milliliters of water, which is the maximum allowable level for infrequent human contact).

Total 2011 hits broken out by stream indicated that the two streams 303(d)-listed for pathogens, Parkerson Mill and Pepperell Branch, had the highest levels and occurrences of E. coli contamination (11 and 10 hits respectively). The following graph is a priority ranking of sampled streams based on occurrence of E. coli hits measured by the SOS and CHEWUP water monitors (red portion of bars indicate hits of E. coli greater than 600/100 milliliters of water; yellow portion of bars indicate hits of E. coli in the 200-600/100 milliliter of water range):

Click here for larger graph

As seen above, the two 303(d)-listed streams (based on presence of excessive pathogens) were the highest priority streams (had the greatest number of E. coli hits) based on the 2011 citizen bacteria blitz data.

Examples of long-term trends in bacteria concentrations in select streams were presented to show more intensive sampling done by some of the local volunteer monitors, and to emphasize that these data and graphs can be accessed and explored via the AWW homepage (www.alabamawaterwatch.org, click on WATER DATA).

In conclusion:

1. The mainstem of Saugahatchee Creek was not heavily contaminated with E. coli, contamination occurred mostly in a tributary, the Pepperell Branch.
2. Volunteer water quality data in the two watersheds, the Saugahatchee and Chewacla watersheds, grew from zero in 1996 to 5,250 records in December 2011.
3. As a result of volunteer water monitoring, sewage contamination problems in both Auburn and Opelika have been sourced and fixed.
4. Collaborative relationships have developed between citizen monitors and municipal officials, which are crucial for the effective and timely solving of water quality problems.
5. Auburn-area efforts serve as an inspirational success story to motivate others toward watershed stewardship (featured as an AWW SUCCESS STORY – see AWW’s homepage).

Watershed monitoring and pollution resolution was accomplished through the efforts of both SOS and CHEWUP volunteer monitors, through training and backstopping provided to volunteers by AWW, through funding provided by grants from ADEM and the World Wildlife Fund, and through collaboration with municipal officials in the cities of Auburn and Opelika – thanks to all for making this part of Alabama a better place to live!

by: eric reutebuch

A group of dedicated area residents dipped tubes and collection bottles into the Indian Creek Canal in downtown Huntsville to test an array of water chemistry parameters on November 19th 2011 (click here for Huntsville Time blog article).

Trainers from Alabama Water Watch (AWW) and the Flint River Conservation Association (FRCA) hosted one of AWW’s largest workshops ever, with 33 attendees. Participants included professional agency folks, teachers, students, a couple of spelunkers, and retired folks.

During the classroom portion of the six-hour Water Chemistry workshop, participants learned about Alabama Water Watch, its mission, vision and goals, and an overview of the water environment, pollution and water quality standards, how to develop a water monitoring plan, and how to conduct the six water chemistry tests included in the AWW water test kit. Tests include temperature, pH, alkalinity, hardness, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Secchi disk depth, a measure of water clarity in lakes and ponds, was also demonstrated.

After lunch, the trainees conducted tested the water of Indian Creek Canal. AWW trainers stressed following the protocols in the AWW Water Chemistry Monitoring manual, doing the tests correctly, and conducting consistent monitoring (usually once a month) over the long haul to detect trends and be able to see if water quality is getting better or getting worse.

The diversity in trainees exemplified the many different reasons why folks monitor water and the diversity in the many ways that AWW water data are put into positive action, such as environmental education, outreach, waterbody conservation/ restoration, environmental advocacy/influencing water policy. This group of enthusiastic volunteer monitors will be a big shot in the arm to watershed stewardship in the Huntsville area!

In November, AWW Program Staff dove into somewhat uncharted AWW territory with the first unofficial Young Water Watchers (YWW) workshop. For some time, AWW has been working to develop a way for younger individuals to take part in water quality monitoring, but because of safety concerns and data validity it has taken some time to get there.  With support and collaboration of the Mill Creek Watershed Project, coordinated by Katie Dylewski, a pilot chemistry and bacteria workshop was facilitated at Central High School (CHS) in Phenix City. 

Students who participated ranged from ages 14-18 and were chosen because of their interest in environmental issues and science. Many will represent CHS in the Alabama Envirothon (www.alabamaenvirothon.org), which is an annual competition where teams compete for recognition by demonstrating their knowledge of environmental science and natural resource management. CHS teachers Susan Lawhon and Meredith Curtis and school nurse Cindy Howard participated with the students and will work with them to develop a regular monitoring plan for the on-campus stream which is part of the Mill Creek Watershed. The data they collect will be especially important for evaluating local watershed health because Mill Creek is listed as “impaired” or contaminated by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The Mill Creek Watershed Project plans to make changes in local land use which will improve water quality in the stream. The student data will help to track changes in the watershed.

Students enjoyed hands-on learning about water quality. One was overheard to say, “I wish biology could always be this fun!” We do too! And we hope that this will be the first of many schools to participate in the Young Water Watchers program.  Thanks to Legacy we will have funds to print a set of water monitoring manuals geared to a younger crowd. If you are interested in partnering with us to teach young students about water monitoring or if you’d like to sponsor a YWW workshop please contact the AWW Office.