AWWareness

by: eric reutebuch

Alabama Water Watch (AWW) was recently cited by AU President, Jay Gogue, Ph.D., in a letter to AU alumni (click here for letter). The letter expressed the concerns of the Auburn Family over the Gulf oil spill, and AU’s involvement in mediating the environmental disaster.

AWW’s involvement in the Gulf dates back to the early 1990’s when the statewide program began training citizen volunteers to monitor water quality. Coastal groups eagerly embraced the opportunity to become AWW-certified water monitors, and to employ the EPA-approved testing methods in monitoring their estuaries, bays and bayous. To date, coastal water monitoring groups have contributed over 20,000 water quality records (15,540 water chemistry records, 5,278 bacteria records, and 55 bioassessment records through July 2010) to the AWW statewide database, and are actively monitoring 119 sites.

AWW volunteer monitors often do much more than water testing. During AWW training workshops, they learn about the watershed concept, water quality, various pollutants that foul surface waters, how to test water quality, and ways to put their water data to work. Many go beyond testing, into watershed preservation, restoration and advocacy. Several, like Ann Crawford of the Wolf Bay Watershed Watch, are currently taking an active role as volunteer observers, checking coastal marshes, bays and wetlands for signs of oil pollution (read more at the AL.com blog, and at the AU Oil Spill blog). This spirit of volunteerism and stewardship of people across Alabama is the heart and soul of Alabama Water Watch!

Alabama Water Watch Staff and volunteer instructors recently conducted a Water Chemistry Monitor workshop at the Smith Lake Civic Association Building and Duncan Bridge Marina.

Click here to view the video and read more about it

Alabama Water Watch held their 17th Annual Meeting and Picnic on Saturday, June 19th at Auburn University. The event started with a mini-conference in Comer Hall. Bill Deutsch, AWW Program Director, welcomed guests from around the state, and asked them which of the 10 major basins in Alabama they came from. Folks from seven of the 10 basins were in attendance, from the Tallapoosa, Coosa, Chattahoochee, Tennessee, Coastal Plain Steams, Black Warrior and Cahaba basins. They collectively represented the following 16 groups that monitor from the Tennessee Valley to the Alabama Coast:

• Save Our Saugahatchee
• Friends of Chewacla and Uphapee Watersheds
• Lake Watch of Lake Martin
• Tri-River Region Water Watch
• Lake Mitchell HOBO
• RSVP Marshall County (Lake Guntersville)
• Lake Harding Water Watch
• Friends of Halawakee Creek
• Smith Lake Civic Association
• Alabama River Rats
• Watercress Darter Water Quality Monitoring Program
• Friends of Shades Creek
• Friends of Hodnett Creek
• Coastal Plain Streams Water Watch
• Jake and Donny Water Watch
• Mill Creek Watershed Management Plan 

Mini-conference YouTube video

Picnic and Mini-conference Photo Gallery

Mini-conference Presentations (with voice recording)

Bill continued by describing linkages among individual monitors, the AWW groups, the Alabama Water Watch Program and Alabama Water Watch Association (AWWA), and water watch globally – the Global Water Watch. He concluded by emphasizing that AWW is composed of three parts: the AU-based AWW Program, the 501(c)3 AWW Association (composed of board members from basins throughout the state) and the citizen monitoring groups (currently 58) throughout the state. He said that at the present time, there are strong ties and interactions between the AWW Program and the groups, and between the AWW Program and AWWA, but not a lot of interaction between the groups and AWWA. Bill had met with the AWWA board the previous evening to develop plans to strengthen this connection in the coming months.

Mike Kensler, Outreach Programs Administrator with the AU Water Resources Center, then spoke on the evolution of the environmental movement in the US, and how we got to where we are today. He outlined the ‘Alabama Water Watch story’ and suggested ways that AWW can revitalize its base, become more relevant to Alabamians, and increase organizational effectiveness going forward.

Jayme Oates, Executive Director of the AWWA, followed with a synopsis of AWWA deliberations over the past several months. AWWA has been working on a strategic plan consisting of five major goals:

Goal 1: Increase public awareness through increased data analysis, interpretation and dissemination,

Goal 2: Increase local group effectiveness and impact by providing them with the means to communicate and coordinate their efforts both with each other and with agency staff,

Goal 3: Secure stronger, more stable support of AWW from Auburn University,

Goal 4: Raise funds to meet annual budget goals and carry out annual activities,

Goal 5: Strengthen AWWA’s organizational capacity.

At the close of the mini-conference, all relocated to the AU ponds for a catfish & shrimp feed, followed by the 2010 AWW Awards Ceremony. This year’s awards went to the following individuals (note, awards are based on activity from June 2009-May 2010):

• The Mike Mullen Award – Monitor of the Year for outstanding performance and lasting contribution of an individual submitting the most records in the past year went to Bob Keefe (270 total water monitoring records submitted),
• Manic Stonefly Award for outstanding performance and lasting contribution of a group submitting the most combined records in the past year – Wolf Bay Watershed Watch (571 total water monitoring records submitted),
• The Trainer of the Year award for outstanding performance and lasting contribution of an individual conducting the most training sessions in the past year – Homer Singleton (11 water monitoring workshops),
• The AWW 08-09 MVP award for outstanding and dynamic performance and lasting contribution of an AWW Staff member during the past year – Eric Reutebuch (AWW staffer since 1996).

These individuals, along with all of the volunteer monitors throughout the state have given selflessly of their time and talent in monitoring and protecting the waters of Alabama, and for this we are truly grateful! The waters of Alabama are surely cleaner because of their collective efforts!

 

 

Click the Image for Picnic information and registration

The seeds of watershed planning have been sown over the past several years in the Smith Lake Watershed at the annual ‘State of the Lake Address’ sponsored by Smith Lake Environmental Preservation Committee, or SLEPC. Alabama Water Watch (AWW) staff annually evaluate volunteer monitor data collected by the five active monitoring groups in the Smith Lake Watershed and look at long-term trends in the data to see if the water quality in sections of the lake is getting better or worse. The five water monitoring groups include SLEPC (on Ryan Creek), Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Inc., or WCSLAI (on Crooked, Rock, Brushy and Sipsey Fork), Camp McDowell (on Clear Creek), Smith Lake Civic Association, or SLCA (on the lower lake), and Cullman County Soil and Water Conservation District, or CULCO (on streams throughout Cullman County).

Continue reading “Smith Lake residents embrace watershed management”

by: eric reutebuch

The 6th Annual State of Our Watershed Conference, The Tallapoosa River Basin will be at the Betty Carol Graham Technology Center at the Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010.

This year’s organizers and sponsors include the Auburn University Water Resources Center, Alabama Water Watch, the Middle Tallapoosa Clean Water Partnership, Lake Watch of Lake Martin, Lake Martin Home Owners & Boat Owners Association, and Central Alabama Community College.

Conference topics include:

• An update on the tri-state water wars
• Progress of the FERC dam relicensing
• Watershed management in the Tallapoosa River Basin

For the agenda and to register for the conference, Click Here.

For additional information, contact conference coordinator, Jayme Oates at the Alabama Water Watch Office at Auburn University ( oatesjm@auburn.edu , (888) 844- 4785).

To view the Tallapoosa River Basin Management Plan (8.2 megs), Click Here.

To learn about water issues in the Tallapoosa Basin, read the Alabama Water Watch publications on Lake Wedowee (click here) and Lake Martin (click here), compiled in collaboration with Lake Wedowee Property Owners Assoiciation and Lake Watch of Lake Martin.

Check out the articles on the Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Inc. blog:

Click here for article #1

Click here for article #2

A Living Downstream video was first produced over a decade ago in VHS format. Recently, the video was reformatted in digital form and updated to reflect the growth and evolution of the AWW Program over the past 18 years, since its inception in 1992.

View the video

Under the leadership of Dr. Bill Deutsch, AWW Program Director, thousands of Alabamians have been trained and certified in water quality monitoring, from the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf of Mexico. AWW-trained citizen volunteers monitor their local waters, educate communities on how to better utilize and preserve water resources, and actively take part in shaping water-management policy throughout Alabama.

by: eric reutebuch

The SWaMP (Saugahatchee Watershed Management Plan) Project and  Alabama Water Watch were extremely pleased to have Marlon Cook, Director, Groundwater Assessment Program, Geological Survey of Alabama, present results from a six-year GSA study, ANALYSIS OF SEDIMENT LOADING RATES AND IMPACTS OF UPPAVED ROADS ON SELECTED TRIBUTARIES TO GANT AND POINT A LAKES, COVINGTON COUNTY ALABAMA 2002-2007. The presentation was at Upchurch Hall on the Auburn University campus on December 16th, 2009.

Seminar Announcement

Mr. Cook touched on erosion/sedimentation processes, and their affects on streams in Alabama. He showed results of the impressive study conducted by the GSA in Covington County, where GSA scientists measured sediment load in several streams before and after installation of BMPs (best management practices) on dirt roads that crossed the local streams.

PowerPoint Presentation

Video: Part 1,  Part 2

The BMPs included chip-seal (surfacing with tar and limestone) of the road surface from hilltop to hilltop on both sides of a bridge, armoring drainage ditches along the sides of the road with limestone rip-rap, installation of curb and gutters, planting of vegetative cover on road sides, and check-dam installation in roadside ditches. Mr. Cook emphasized that a relatively small amount of road improvement on unpaved roads can make a dramatic improvement in stream water quality (manifest as reduction of dirt being washed into the stream during rain events) if the improvements are targeted to areas of high erosion at stream crossings. Results of the GSA study indicated reductions from 46% to 99% in sediment loads in streams, depending on the BMP treatments installed. The seminar closed with a stimulating discussion about things that could be done on Lee County’s 187 miles of unpaved roads to reduce the amount of dirt flushed into our local streams and improve their water quality.

SWaMP is administered and coordinated by Alabama Water Watch and Auburn University Fisheries Department, and partially funded by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management through a Clean Water Act Section 319(h) nonpoint source grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Region 4.

Special thanks to Mr. Marlon Cook for traveling to Auburn University and sharing his knowledge and experiences with us in an effort to restore and preserve Auburn’s natural resources!