2016 Salt Lake County Watershed Symposium

Starts With a BBQ: Aligning Citizens with Utah Monitoring Needs
More than 20 of our most dedicated Utah Water Watch volunteers gathered this summer to share the story of why they monitor at the first annual volunteer get-together in Salt Lake City.

Now in its fifth year, Utah Water Watch -- Utah’s citizen water quality monitoring network – is expanding and adapting its programs, providing volunteers with moer advanced monitoring opportunities. We are finding new ways to support our existing network of over 100 volunteers while addressing Utah’s unique monitoring needs. In this session, we will show how our volunteers are working with watershed partners and scientists to improve the water quality and safety of Utah's rivers, lakes and streams. We have learned that volunteers want to know how their data is used, so forming these connections between volunteers and scientists is critical to the success of our program.

We will be discussing how improvements to the Tier 2 volunteer network and coordination with watershed partners can advance statewide water quality goals. Partners benefit from an extra hand in the field and volunteers learn about local water quality issues while assisting with implementation and monitoring of restoration projects.

We will also address our plan to expand lake monitoring, especially for harmful algal blooms and E. coli, to help keep Utah’s waters and swimming beaches safe. Volunteers monitor many of the swimming beaches and lakes in many rural areas that are often beyond the reach of state and local agencies. Utah Water Watch is working closely with the Utah Lakes and Reservoirs program as well as partners such as the State Parks in developing our protocol and network.