Alabama Water Watch (AWW)

Alabama Water Watch is a citizen volunteer, water quality monitoring program covering all of the major river basins of the state. The mission of AWW is to improve both water quality and water policy through citizen monitoring and action. Established in 1992, AWW is a national model for citizen involvement in watershed stewardship, largely because of its three interrelated components: citizen monitoring groups, a university-based program, and a non-profit association. AWW uses EPA-approved monitoring plans with a community-based approach to train citizens to monitor conditions and trends of their local waterbodies. With a “data-to-action” focus, AWW helps volunteers collect, analyze, and understand their data to make positive impacts.

The AWW vision is to have a citizen monitor on every stream, river, lake, and coast in Alabama. The goal of AWW is to foster the development of statewide water quality monitoring by:

• Educating citizens on water issues in Alabama and the world
• Training citizens to use standardized equipment and techniques to gather credible water information using quality assurance protocols.
• Empowering citizens to make a positive impact by using their water monitoring data for environmental education, waterbody restoration and protection, and involvement in watershed stewardship.

Baldwin County partners with the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) and Alabama Water Watch Program to offer training, water quality kits and chemicals.  For more information regarding AWW visit their website at the following link: Alabama Water Watch (auburn.edu).