Alabama Water Watch (AWW) is a citizen volunteer, water quality monitoring program that began in 1992. The Program is coordinated from the Auburn University Fisheries Department, with primary funding from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM, the state’s environmental regulatory agency) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region IV. The Program grew out of a strong grassroots movement of local groups that had formed for the protection of waterbodies throughout the state. Many citizens feel it is their right and responsibility to become actively involved in protecting and restoring Alabama’s water resources. These groups realize that advocacy for local waters requires strong community-based knowledge and action. Since its inception, AWW has developed strong relationships with water-based groups and worked with them to enhance their capabilities in watershed stewardship.

The mission of AWW is to improve both water quality and policy through citizen monitoring and action. Citizen volunteers attend one or more AWW workshops to become certified monitors of water quality. In the workshops, participants learn simple techniques for measuring various chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water, such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), alkalinity, hardness, turbidity, pH and bacterial (E. coli) concentrations in water.

AWW’s vision is to have a citizen monitor on every stream, river, lake, and bay in Alabama. This is a lofty goal since Alabama is such a water-rich state. There are over 75,000 miles of streams and rivers and 490,000 acres of lakes in the state.

Learn more about AWW projects and the Program by reading the following articles:
Group Dynamics and Resource Availability of a Long-Term Volunteer Water-Monitoring Program by William Deutsch, Laura Lhotka and Sergio Ruiz-C rdova.
Society & Natural Resources, Volume 22, Issue 7 August 2009, pages 637 – 649
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/08941920802078216

The Long, Winding Road to“Outstanding Alabama Water” Status by Bill Deutsch
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Volume 19, No. 1, Summer 2008
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon19no1.pdf

Validity and Applications of Citizen Volunteer Water-Quality Data: A Case From Alabama by William Deutsch (deutswg@auburn.edu), Eric Reutebuch, and Sergio Ruiz-Cordova. Water Resources Impact VOLUME 9 • NUMBER 5 • SEPTEMBER 2007
http://www.awra.org/impact/issues/0709imp_toc.pdf

Simple Approaches in Alabama & Internationally by Bill Deutsch
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Volume 18, No. 1, Winter 2006
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon18no1.pdf

Volunteer Certification - and Recertification by Eleanor Ely
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Volume 17, No. 1, Winter 2005
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon17no1.pdf

Community-based Water Monitoring in Alabama and the Philippines by Bill Deutsch
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Volume 15, No. 1, Winter 2003
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon15no1.pdf

Topsoil loss in the Philippines by Bill Deutsch
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Volume 15, No. 2, Summer 2003
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon15no2.pdf

Stream-less Stream Assessment
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring 2000
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon12no1.pdf

Just What the Doctor Ordered by Tina Laidlaw
Volunteer Monitor newsletter, Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 1996
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon08no1.pdf

For more information about the AWW program, visit their website at: http://www.alabamawaterwatch.org/

To view programs that were highlighted on this site in the past, visit our highlighted program archives.