Monitoring

It’s All About the Quality

As a core part of our mission, Catawba Riverkeeper is dedicated to monitoring the waters of the Catawba-Wateree River Basin for all people, flora, and fauna.

While there are many parameters that can affect water quality, our monitoring activities are focused on:

pH (acidity)
temperature
dissolved oxygen
turbidity
total suspended solids
specific conductivity
macroinvertebrate populations
E. coli bacteria

Catawba Riverkeeper collects water samples and test them for certain parameters to help us determine what threats a specific area may be experiencing.

While staff are heavily involved in these processes, there are many areas within the basin that are just not feasible to get to due to time constraints, capacity, or a number of other obstacles. That's where our volunteer Community Scientists come in!

Swim Guide

One of the most common questions Riverkeepers get during the summer is, "Is it safe to swim here?"

To help answer that question, Catawba Riverkeeper operates a summer Swim Guide program to test popular swimming/recreation areas on local lakes throughout the basin.

Riverkeeper staff, interns, and volunteers collect 60-70 water samples on Thursday mornings, and run them to one of our two in-house labs for testing. Samples are then tested, and results are posted on Fridays.

Click here to learn more about Swim Guide.

What Can Volunteers Do?

Boat Captain volunteers collect samples from specific locations in their designated lake. Then, volunteer Runners bring the samples to our in-house labs.

Basic commitment criteria for each position are as follows:

Boat Captains must have access to a motorized boat that is operational, must be able to grab samples from their boat, and can commit to at least 2 consecutive weeks of collection.
Runners must have a valid Driver’s License, access to a working vehicle, and can commit to at least 2-3 consecutive weeks of picking up samples and returning them to the labs.

Interest and inquiries in this critical program that serves the community and helps the core mission of the Catawba Riverkeeper can be sent to Kaity D’Angelo at Kaity.d@catawbariverkeeper.org.

Water Watcher Network

Catawba Riverkeeper is revamping our Water Watcher program into a more interactive, forum-based program that will give the public opportunities to meet quarterly throughout our 4 Sub-Basins.

This initiative aims to bring together passionate individuals committed to safeguarding our Basin’s water quality and its surrounding ecosystem. As stewards of this vital resource, our collective efforts will play a pivotal role in fostering awareness, addressing challenges, and implanting solutions to preserve this natural treasure.

The primary goals of the Water Watcher Network are to create a collaborative platform within our communities where concerned residents, environmental enthusiasts, scientists, policymakers, community leaders, members, and volunteers alike can:

converge to discuss water quality issues,
share knowledge and insights about the health of the river and surrounding areas, and
collaborate on actionable initiatives aimed at preserving and enhancing our aquatic ecosystems.

If you have questions or are interested in supporting our mission through volunteerism or community science, contact Volunteer & Community Science Manager Kaity D’Angelo at Kaity.d@catawbariverkeeper.org.

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