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Sound Rivers officially launched its newest program, just in time for Earth Month.

Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop, Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman, Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz hosted Water Watch trainings last weekend in Oriental and Blounts Creek, drawing a crowd of river-lovers at each.

“These pilot trainings went really well, and now we have a great group in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico to test out the program,” Katey said.

Water Watch is Sound Rivers’ new community-science program aimed at monitoring more waterways in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds.

And there are a lot of them: two major rivers, 928,052 acres of estuary, 5,909 miles of streams and 21,423 acres of freshwater lakes across 12,210 square miles of North Carolina.

Since Sound Rivers’ Riverkeeping team can’t be everywhere at once, they developed a program to train volunteers to keep an eye on the waterways, collecting basic observational data about river health, flagging any pollution concerns and relaying them to the team.

The first two trainings were a success, according to Taylor.

“We had a great turnout at both trainings — everyone was super-engaged, and we had more signups for sites than we were expecting,” Taylor said. “I will admit, we’ve all been a bit anxious leading up to this weekend because there’s just a lot of unknowns with building a completely new program from the ground up. But everything turned out so much better than we could’ve hoped, which has got us really amped up to keep moving forward.”

The Riverkeeping team chose to start Water Watch trainings in the lower parts of both watersheds, then work their way up each river with several more personalized trainings.

“The idea is to get smaller communities engaged and excited about water quality, teaching them how to identify and report all sorts of issues, but also focusing on the big issues that affect them locally,” Taylor said. “So, for Oriental, we focused on oil spills and in-water boat maintenance, and for Blount’s Creek, the potential issues that could arise as a result of the Martin Marietta mine.”

There are now 9 new Water Watchers in Oriental and 10 in the Blounts Creek area.

 “Went into it with a map of suggested sites that we would like to see monitored, but said, ‘If none of these appeal to you or you already have a section of creek or stream that you visit often, then feel free to monitor that one.’ Our main goal is to encourage participation and maximize community involvement in our work,” Katey said.

Katey said the Riverkeeping team is testing the program with this first round of Water Watchers’ feedback determining how the program progresses in the future. The next Water Watch trainings will be held in the fall.  

“The Water Watch launch has been in the works for months now, with nearly all of our staff contributing to make the process as seamless as possible,” Taylor said. “Our Riverkeeper team put in a ton of work into developing the curriculum for the program, but the training itself wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the rest of our team. From the creation of training resources and new website pages for the program, to promoting our trainings and wrangling all of the volunteer-related aspects, all of our staff played a role in getting this program up and running.”

Are you interested in becoming a Water Watcher? Fill out the form here, and we’ll keep you updated on when a Water Watch training is happening near you!