Cheryl Nenn

In 2006, Milwaukee Riverkeeper established our citizen-based water quality monitoring program and to date has trained over 400 volunteers to test water quality in the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic Rivers and their tributaries.  Currently, we have 95 volunteers monitoring over 100 river and stream stations throughout the Milwaukee River Basin, making our program one of the largest citizen science water quality programs in Wisconsin. We monitor for many different parameters, including bacteria, chloride, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and phosphorus. Data from our program is shared directly with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and is used by biologists in making management decisions, including evaluating rivers for inclusion on the State’s list of Impaired Waters.  In addition to baseline monitoring, we have expanded our program to include other citizen science programs including road salt monitoring, emerging contaminant monitoring, and native mussel monitoring.  Within this talk, we will give an overview of our program as well as present case studies of how we have used citizens to effectively collect valuable data and affect water policy.

$5 donation appreciated. No pre-registration required.