CITIZENS VOLUNTEER WATER QUALITY MONITORING

Over the years, millions of dollars have been invested in water pollution control efforts throughout Waukesha County. However, it is difficult to know if our lakes and streams are getting cleaner, or if these efforts are outweighed by development pressures. Why don't we know? Because there is a severe shortage of actual water quality monitoring going on!

Waukesha County would like to change that through citizen water quality monitoring. In this program, a network of volunteers are trained and equipped to do basic water quality monitoring. Volunteers check a variety of water quality indicators such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and aquatic insect diversity at several key times each year.

Most importantly an internet accessible database houses all this information. Anyone can check the big picture of what's happening in an area at any time. The data is helping establish long term trends in local water quality and other environmental indicators-through the people that live here. Land Resources staff and other groups can use the information to help identify where progress has been made and what areas still need attention. This will help us all make good land use decisions in the future.

Once the data is collected and analyzed, students can look beyond the water's edge to the landscape draining to the lake or stream and the effect human activities have on water quality. They may even discover a few ways they may help to improve water quality.