The City of Boulder has had its share of issues with drinking water over the last few years.
Perhaps you read about elevated levels of chromium-6 (the contaminant discussed at length in Erin Brockovich) in a 2014 article in Boulder Weekly, or maybe you’ve seen more recent coverage of the elevated levels of haloacetic acids at Betasso Water Treatment Plant in the Daily Camera last year.
That knowledge gap was the impetus for World Water Monitoring Day, which America’s Clean Water Foundation established in 2003 as a way to commemorate the 1972 enactment of the Clean Water Act.
The event was originally celebrated on the law’s anniversary, Oct. 18, but has since been moved to its current date, Sept. 18.
Participants have ranged from local environmental education nonprofits to school groups to families, and Russell emphasizes that monitoring one’s water supply is easier than you might think.
Whether as individuals, school groups or other stake holders, the volunteer stewards monitor not only water quality but other indicators of watershed health in an effort to compile high-quality data that can be used for education efforts and to inform decision-makers about the health of Colorado’s waterways.
The City also “routinely samples nearly 100 locations in the distribution system for chlorine residual, bacteria, disinfection byproducts, lead, copper, pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness.” The City of Boulder “goes above and beyond regulatory requirements to ensure safe drinking water and monitors for potential changes in water quality,” Dunlap says, and points out that citizens can learn about the City’s findings on its drinking water quality webpage.
Though the Sept. 18 event is a rallying cry for citizen scientists to get involved in local water quality monitoring, the EarthEcho Water Challenge and River Watch’s efforts are a year-round affair: they’ll happily take data from those monitoring their water at any time.
The publicly available water quality data collected by citizens, “may be used by local environmental education nonprofits for their own restoration efforts, or it could be used by government officials,” says Russell, who encourages citizens to look up historical data for their waterways as well.
In other words, Russell says, monitoring your local water quality is just the first step.