Outdoor America 2019 Issue 4
This fall, League staff and trainers taught nearly 300 volunteers how to monitor water quality in their communities, from chemical tests to identifying macroinvertebrates. Those volunteers have already gathered information about local streams during their trainings, and they are ready to get to work next spring!
Throughout the fall, stream monitors posted water quality test results to the League’s new Clean Water Hub – your home for water quality information. Are there results in your area? Take a look!
You don’t have to be a stream monitor to make use of this water quality information. Did someone find a problem in your city? Show the results to local decisionmakers so they know what’s happening and can investigate further.
Don’t see any results near you? Help add some! Volunteers can do chemical testing (like our Winter Salt Watch) with no formal training. We have helpful how-to videos on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page that walk you through each type of test.
You can also make a donation to the League to support our stream monitor training program!
Working together, we can improve water quality across the nation and Save Our Streams.
League Makes Water Quality Information Available to Iowans Again
The League’s Clean Water Hub ensures Americans have access to information about the health of streams in their communities. When the Hub came online this summer, the League moved quickly to incorporate Iowa water quality test results. Data collected by volunteers through the IOWATER program, formerly run by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), was taken offline in 2016. With help from partner groups, the League added those IOWATER results from about 3,500 stream monitoring sites across Iowa to the Hub.
The League believes strongly that the public has a right to know about water quality where they live. And the Clean Water Hub allows us to deliver on this commitment – in Iowa and nationwide.
Start monitoring – get your FREE Winter Salt Watch kit