Community Science Water Quality Monitoring
Every year, thousands of river enthusiasts enjoy kayaking, paddleboarding, wading, or even swimming in the Potomac River. Our goal is for everyone to be able to use and enjoy the river safely; the Potomac River and its tributaries, however, are not always safe to enjoy. When it rains, sewage is mixed with polluted stormwater in the city’s outdated Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) stormwater system. This toxic concoction discharges containments—such as raw sewage, pet waste, road runoff, and others—directly into the Potomac River, posing public health risks.
The dangers of runoff and sewage led the DC government to ban swimming in the Potomac River decades ago. Today, thanks to the infrastructure investments made by DC Water, sewage overflows occur much less frequently in the Anacostia River, and the Potomac River often meets public health standards for swimming.
Our goal through our Swimmable Potomac Campaign is to stop sewer overflows, lift the swim bans and provide a good public notification system so that the residents can safely swim and recreate in the Potomac River.
To keep our community informed and safe while on the Potomac, in 2019 PRKN founded its Community Science Water Quality Monitoring Program to test the waters and inform our community when and where it’s safe to swim. We started by organizing a dedicated team of volunteers who received rigorous training provided by PRKN and other skilled professionals working throughout our watershed. From May through September, our volunteers collect water samples weekly from public access sites along the river, analyze them, and report the results every Friday so weekend river users know if it is safe to swim or recreate in the river. This is a free public health notification system for river users, spanning over one hundred river miles from Shepherdstown WV to Colonial Beach VA.
The program has been so successful that, we have been able to expand to 39 sites along the Potomac in DC, Maryland, and Virginia! Click on the map below for the monitoring locations. We now have three Tier III certified labs to analyze our samples collected by over 100 trained volunteers. We expanded to Colonial Beach in 2023.
Monitoring Sites
To see if your local public access point is safe to swim in, check out SwimGuide and Facebook every Friday between May and the end of September. We release new site results each week, as the safety of access points may change from week to week. For more general trends in site passing standards, check out our Swimmable Potomac Report, which summarized results and findings on the health of the river.
WHY MONITOR WATER QUALITY?
Part of Potomac Riverkeeper Network’s mission is to improve recreation access. For years it has been illegal to swim in the Potomac River in Washington, DC because high levels of bacteria sometimes make it unsafe. When it rains, pollution from many sources runs into our river, including:
- polluted stormwater
- raw sewage
- pet waste
- road runoff
- litter
- other contaminants that foul the Potomac River.
Yet, thousands of people are recreating on the river in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia waters each year. Unfortunately, there was little to no data for river users to determine if it was safe to use the river until PRKN started our Community Science Water Quality Monitoring Program. We feel it is essential for members of the public to have current information about pollution that may directly affect their health.
We are also working to lift the ban on swimming – sign our petition to Mayor Bowser. We have submitted our Swimmable Potomac Report to DC’s Department of Energy and Environment to show that the river is frequently safe for swimming, especially with our weekly notifications to the public. We are now working with DC DOEE and city officials to make DC a Swimmable City.
ABOUT OUR PROGRAM
Our program relies on a dedicated team of volunteer community scientists who are trained and certified by Potomac Riverkeeper Network and other skilled and knowledgeable professionals. The volunteers conduct weekly water quality sampling for E.coli from a host of sites throughout D.C., Maryland, & Virginia. These samples are then brought to our Tier III certified labs at Hood College, National Harbor, and Colonial Beach, where they are processed and analyzed. The results of our water quality monitoring are then posted on SwimGuide, the smartphone app for recreational users, as well as on our social media. This allows the public to know when and where it is safe for recreation along our river.
The water quality monitoring data is also shared with other groups working to protect the Chesapeake through the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative and the Chesapeake Data Explorer.
Get Trained and help make the Potomac Swimmable again!
As we continue to add more water quality monitoring sites, we need more volunteers to help us with collecting and testing samples. This is your opportunity to participate directly in gathering the water quality data that we need to inform the public about when and where it is safe to recreate in the Potomac River. You can help not only provide a public service to your community, but also drive investment in stopping sewage and stormwater pollution.
Volunteers collect and analyze water samples on Wednesday mornings where people frequently recreate to provide up-to-date information on the water quality near you! We sample for the E.coli bacteria, which serves as a water quality parameter for human health in recreational waters. This monitoring initiative is one step towards our ultimate goal of making the river swimmable for all to use and enjoy!
If you have Wednesday mornings free and are interested in participating in our program, please complete the following steps:
- Watch our three training modules below in order.
- Once you have successfully completed all three modules, contact our lab manager, Lisa Wu ()
and volunteer coordinator, Evan Quinter () to request our Water Quality Monitoring Certification Exam. After completing our certification exam, you will be a certified water quality monitor and will receive all of the materials and information you need to get started! - Please fill out and sign our waiver, too.
- After completing our certification exam, we will arrange for an in-person session to certify you as a Water Quality Monitor and you will receive all of the materials and information you need to get started!
