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).

How's My Waterway was designed to provide the general public with information about the condition of their local waters based on data that states, federal, tribal, local agencies and others have provided to EPA. Water quality information is displayed on 3 scales in How’s My Waterway; community, state and national. More recent or more detailed water information may exist that is not yet available through EPA databases or other sources. Check out the How's My Waterway Fact Sheet.

What will I find in How’s My Waterway?

Community:

• Water quality in your local watershed.
• Information on swimming, eating fish and aquatic life.
• Restoration and protection efforts.
• Permitted discharger information.
• Identified Issues (impairments and discharge violations).
• Local drinking water information.
• Water monitoring information.

State:

• Information about a states water program.
• Summaries of specific water assessments.
• A state-wide survey of water quality where available.
• State drinking water metrics.

National:

• The quality of water resources nationwide and their main challenges.
• National drinking water information and metrics.

The information above has been derived from the EPA- United States Environmental Protection Agency