Volunteers collect samples from San Dieguito, Penasquitos watersheds April 18
Del Mar Times
04/14/2010
Watershed monitoring volunteers will collect water samples from the San
Dieguito and Penasquitos watersheds on April 18 with San Diego
Coastkeeper.
Watershed captains, David Quant, Adrian Kinnane and Debbie Knight will
head their team of volunteers in collecting the appropriate data from
these two watersheds. These watershed captains live in the areas they
monitor and their data helps asses the health of the water county wide.
San Diego Coastkeeper trains more than 400 volunteers annually to
collect monthly surface water quality information in nine of 11
watersheds in San Diego County.
Coastkeeper's watershed monitoring program is essential to set a
baseline for water quality, track trends over time, help improve
government decision making regarding local water bodies and to create a
team of trained citizen volunteers who connect with their local
ecosystem. Coastkeeper's monitoring of these water bodies is the most
frequent in the county.
"Coastkeeper's volunteer water quality monitoring program is the largest
of its kind in the state, and possibly the nation," said Coastkeeper
Executive Director Bruce Reznik. "Since its inception in 2000, we've
trained more than 4,000 community members, who are now empowered to help
conserve and improve our local water bodies."
Once a month, the Coastkeeper office turns into a training center for
local residents. Volunteers from across the county learn about the
importance of San Diego's watersheds and maintaining their ecological
capabilities.
They also practice properly collecting water samples from a demo
watershed. New volunteers are paired with returning volunteers to create
site teams, headed by watershed captains who are designated to oversee
specific watersheds for the year.
While in the field, volunteers use professional quality, calibrated
instruments to measure physical and chemical water quality data.
Volunteers also collect samples for later microbial, nutrient, and
toxicity analysis. Each team monitors three different designated sites
in their watershed. At the end of the day, site teams return the samples
to the Coastkeeper lab for analysis.
