Water Monitors Pool Data for Global Water Quality Snapshot

WASHINGTON, DC, October 18, 2004 (ENS) - Twelve students in teacher Rachel Yzaguirre's special education class at the Henry Clay Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois, studied the Indian Creek watershed all last year. They conducted chemical and biological water monitoring of Indian Creek, which flows from Wolf Lake into local wetlands and then into Lake Calumet.

Today, like those students, people around the globe will monitor the quality of the water in their local rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries for World Water Monitoring Day, an opportunity to test the health of the world's waters.

New Hampshire student checks out a water sample (Photo courtesy USGS)

Results from World Water Monitoring Day will be recorded in a database that will establish a baseline of information for future years.

Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mike Leavitt joins other Bush administration officials as the featured speakers at the Second Annual Celebration of World Water Monitoring Day.

At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center facilities on the Chesapeake Bay in Edgewater, Maryland Leavitt and other government officials will explore the Rhode River on one of the center’s research vessels and sample fish and invertebrates from the bay.

Thousands of people across the United States and around the world are monitoring waterbodies today. The are measuring dissolved oxygen to determine how many molecules of oxygen are in the water.

Since oxygen is important to fish and other aquatic life, higher dissolved oxygen readings support more diverse species and a healthier ecosystem. Lack of dissolved oxygen often results in an absence of living things in the water.

Sampling the water in Illinois, these men are part of the state's five year Water Monitoring Strategy. (Photo courtesy Illinois EPA)

Then they check for turbidity, a measurement of the water's clarity. Debris, sand, silt, and other materials can make the water less clear and more turbid. Turbidity can impact the the aquatic ecosystem by affecting photosynthesis, respiration, and reproduction of aquatic life.

Finally, they take the temperature of the river, stream or lake they are monitoring. This indicator is important because it affects dissolved oxygen, photo-synthesis, and the food supply. Waters that are too hot or too cold can have severe effects on fish and other aquatic life.

World Water Monitoring Day grew out of the efforts of Roberta Savage, president of America’s Clean Water Foundation, to keep U.S. waters clean. "Having worked in the water field for nearly three decades," she told reporters in September, "I became concerned that the public energy and enthusiastic support for our nation’s water programs had diminished over time."

At an event at the National Press Club to get people moving towards water monitoring this year, she said, "An entire generation holds no memory of the problems that this country faced in the late 60s and early 70s. They have no way of knowing how hard so many of us worked to correct our water pollution problems caused by years of national neglect."

So, Savage began to look for ways to get people interested in "the cause of clean water."

Government worker in New South Wales Australia holds up a water sample. (Photo courtesy Waste Service NSW)

This year, the second World Water Monitoring Day, there are 1,893 sites registered in 48 countries from Japan to Israel to Camaroon.

"It is easy. It is fun…and it’s important," Savage said. "Just think, people working together throughout the world to do something positive for the environment and governments."

Water monitors can submit results on the World Water Monitoring Day website through December 18. To find out more or to participate, visit the World Water Monitoring Day website at: www.worldwatermonitoringday.org