Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring

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Water Quality Volunteer Monitors

The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) sponsors a water quality volunteer monitoring program for students and community members who would like to adopt a section of the Los Angeles River, or any other waterway, beach, or storm drain in California. Only a large volunteer program can collect all the water data that is needed to assess the great number of waterways in our state.

Student and community volunteers are trained to act as sentinels to help water monitoring agencies establish a historical record and locate potential hazardous locations. Training programs are organized to insure that testing methods are standardized, and that results are reliable. Groups such as Heal the Bay, Friends of the Los Angeles River, and the Surfrider Foundation are building volunteer programs. Contact the Southern California Marine Institute (S.C.M.I.) to see if they are offering any water quality training workshops which you might attend. S.C.M.I. is located at 820 South Seaside Ave., Terminal Island, CA 90731. Ph: (310) 519-3172 Fax: (310) 519-1054. E-mail: scmi@csulb.edu. For more information on how you and/or your students can become volunteer water quality monitors, contact...

In the Los Angeles area: Heather Trim, Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, Ph: (213) 266-7553.
Throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii: Dr. Edwin Liu (liu.ed@epamail.epa.gov), U.S. EPA. Ph: (415) 744-1934.

You can begin by subscribing to the Volunteer Monitor: The National Newsletter of Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring. Write to 1318 Masonic Ave., San Francisco, CA 94117. Or Call Eleanor Ely at (415) 255-8049. It is free and is published twice a year. Topics include how to do tests, recording data, building simple equipment, recruiting funds and volunteers.

Cal/EPA has announced the publication of two monitoring manuals, Riparian Station How-To Manual and Volunteer Monitoring Protocols. These manuals were created to help local groups who are interested in gathering data on their watersheds. Each manual is $5.00, and can be obtained by contacting:

Make checks payable to Friends of S.F. Esturary.

This project was coordinated by Gwen Starrett, (gwens@bptcp1.swrcb.ca.gov), Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator, Nonpoint Source Unit, Division of Water Quality, P.O. Box 944213, Sacramento, CA 94244-2130.

Also, check out the San Francisco Estuary Institute for on-line avian, fishery, and vegetation survey forms and instructions.

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