During September and October, 2003, several members of the Murderkill Tributary Action Team joined people all over the world, collecting samples of local waters to monitor water quality in support of this year's World Water Monitoring Day and World Water Monitoring Month.  Led by America's Clean Water Foundation, this effort brings in data from all over the world.

From September 18 to October 18, 2003, the 31st birthday of the Clean Water Act, people all over the globe monitored the quality of their local watersheds and entered the results of their efforts into the project's international database.  While these activities can't solve water quality problems in many regions on their own, they do contribute to efforts underway to change the practices and attitudes that impact watershed health.  Using the results as a starting point, people working together can make changes that will improve water quality and help watershed residents improve land and water use practices continue improving the quality of their water bodies.  World Water Monitoring Day was the first step in this direction for many who haven't previously considered taking part in water quality improvement efforts.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency partnered with America’s Clean Water Foundation, the International Water Association and others, encouraging participants to use a simple test kit to take water quality samples of local streams, lakes, bays, or wetlands and enter their data into an international database, an activity helping people learn about our role in protecting clean water.

Last year over 75,000 people across the United States took part in the first National Water Monitoring Day.  They participated in water quality monitoring, educational outreach opportunities and water festivals.  Over 5,150 monitoring sites were registered across the country as citizens, volunteer monitors and government officials joined together, testing the water at more than 70% of the initially registered sites.   You can click here to download the 2002 summary report ( 700 kb PDF file) to learn more about the event's results. 

World Water Monitoring Day serves as a global educational platform for watershed leaders, educators and trained volunteers to teach their neighbors about how their individual land and water use activities can impact the lives and livelihoods of many other people.

Murderkill Tributary Action Team member Gene Thornton-Jagger chose to collect samples at Andrew’s Lake.  Rob Crimmins, a Team member and Delaware Stream Watch volunteer, sampled along the Spring Branch across the street from the Killens Pond State Park entrance, finding it to be in good shape.  He regularly monitors this site in case something happens upstream, where a farm and several homes are located.  There is value in collecting data and simply observing a stream. 

The location he chose to monitor is important to Rob, who says  "The spot where I did the sampling is just a few hundred feet behind my house.   I go there to relax.  It's particularly pleasant on summer mornings and autumn afternoons.  It's shallow, two or three feet at the most, and narrow, just a few steps, and in my spot, the trees close it in almost completely.  At mid-day the sunlight finds its way through the branches in patches, birds dart through the understory, insects abound and water plants sway in the light current.  The images I hold of this obscure little place make me glad, and compel me to go back.  I can go months without being there and other times I'll go there twice a day and twenty days in a row.  It's nice to be alive on the Earth.  The stream behind our house is why...not the stream itself but the fact that it is there and I can sense it.  With all that about it, it's right to learn about it and maybe care for it a little.”

Team member Mike Miller tested samples along the upper tidal portion of the Murderkill River.  He has a personal interest in the ecosystem of this segment of the Murderkill River, because it’s in his back yard!  Mike even suggested that the team continue to monitor, using the test kits. He feels it would be valuable to work with DNREC to integrate the results with data DNREC or other agencies collect.

For more information or to view the results from the 2003 World Water Monitoring Day event, you can click on the links in this article to visit the many organizations that are involved.  We'd also like to invite you to join us and be a part of World Monitoring Day and Month next year!