On October 18, members of the Tanners Creek Watershed Steering Committee joined the rest of the nation for the first annual National Water Monitoring Day.

National Water Monitoring Day is a nationwide event created to mark the 30th anniversary of the initial passage of the Clean Water Act. The effort is coordinated by America's Clean Water Foundation, in cooperation with several other environmental groups and governmental agencies across the country.

The main purpose of the event is to take a snapshot view of streams, lakes, and coastal waters throughout the United States by inviting citizen monitors, established volunteer monitoring organizations and federal, state, Tribal, and local monitoring program staff to evaluate water quality conditions within their local watersheds. Data collected will be entered by monitors into a national databank that stores all information collected on Monitoring Day. While monitoring is a continuous process, never before has such an evaluation been scheduled to occur on one day all across the nation.
Tanners Creek Watershed Project volunteer monitors Sandy Cronier, South Dearborn High School educator, and Kris Streb, Watershed Coordinator, monitored two sites within the Tanners Creek watershed: Tanners Creek West and East Fork at Guilford Park and Mud Lick Creek at Kaiser Road. Cynthia Merrill and Mona Mangold from both the watershed project and WAVES, Water Alliance for Vital EcoSystems, also monitored the watershed at the Salt Fork tributary on Salt Fork Road.

"One of the important lessons learned from the past 30 years is the need for grassroots participation in caring for the natural resources that benefit us locally," said Streb. "Government efforts alone are not enough. Impacts of pollution upstream in a river can adversely affect people hundreds of miles downstream. The public may be faced with problems they didn't create. All American's need to understand our waters and do everything they can in their daily lives to protect them. This is why the national monitoring partnership of citizens, state and local governments, and federal agencies is so important."

The day's efforts were relatively easy and fun to carry out. Volunteers were asked to perform and submit data from four key tests: dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity/clarity and temperature. More experienced monitors also completed more technical analyses such as macroinvertebrate counts, nitrogen content, phosphorus, and speed of water flow.
Data collected by all participating monitors can be viewed at The Year of Clean Water website, www.yearofcleanwater.org. Detailed maps allow users to pinpoint a monitored watershed and access information collected for that particular area. Data collected will help in drafting summary comparisons reflecting changes in water quality over the last thirty years.

The Tanners Creek Watershed Project is committed to sharing and protecting our community's water ecosystem and welcomes citizen participation in future efforts underway. We hope this event increased the public's awareness of their role in protecting and preserving the quality of the nation's waterbodies.

For more information about this event, contact Kris Streb at 812-926-2406 ext.3 or visit the Year of Clean Water website, www.yearofcleanwater.org. You may also check out www.acwf.org and www.tmdls.net for related information.

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