{"id":30580,"date":"2023-05-22t18:42:41","date_gmt":"2023-05-22t18:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/?p=30580"},"modified":"2024-02-22t17:04:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22t17:04:16","slug":"rock-creek-water-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/rock-creek-water-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"seeking a swimmable d.c.: water quality monitoring in rock creek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

as another hot d.c. summer encroaches, the 19,000<\/a> people living near rock creek will need to find a way to cool off \u2014 but not in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

while the waters may look idyllic, a century-old sewage system and dangerously high levels of bacteria have made the urban national park unswimmable for decades. now, a team of volunteers is working to change that, one water sample at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

no-swim zone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

d.c. residents know that swimming in the city\u2019s waterways is not the best idea \u2014 in fact, it’s been illegal since 1971. lorde shocked concert goers and made national news<\/a> last year when she claimed to float in the potomac before her show. there\u2019s a stigma around the cleanliness of these rivers from decades of pollution, but in recent years, the waterways have been slowly improving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the environmental protection agency has been trying to make the city’s waterways swimmable and fishable since the clean water act <\/a>of 1972. while the original ten-year timeline for that goal passed forty years ago, the act set in motion a clean water agenda the city is hoping to reach in the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in 2019, city officials began floating the idea of relaxing or lifting the swim ban<\/a>. but even after decades of cleaning up the waterways, environmentalists question whether the water is safe enough to open to public swimming. data from the d.c. volunteer water quality monitoring project<\/a> is helping shed light on the state of the city\u2019s rivers and streams.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"a
signs in rock creek park warn park-goers and their pets to stay out of the water. (sophie kahler)
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

watching the waterways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

on a cool day in early may, the ground is damp and the water is high in rock creek park. it\u2019s the first day of the 2023 water monitoring season, an overcast morning after several days of on-and-off rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

landrum beard, community engagement coordinator at rock creek conservancy<\/a>, sits under a picnic pavilion at a table lined with small red coolers for volunteers to pick up with their water testing kits. they\u2019ll head out toward their assigned sites, marked with ribbons, along the creek and return with the coolers filled with water samples, which are taken to anacostia riverkeeper\u2019s lab for testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

anacostia riverkeeper<\/a> launched the d.c. volunteer water quality monitoring project in 2018 to measure and track contamination levels in d.c.\u2019s main waterways: the anacostia river, the potomac river, and rock creek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with a $140,000 grant<\/a> from the d.c. department of energy and environment, the project has grown into a collaboration between anacostia riverkeeper<\/a>, alliance for the chesapeake bay<\/a>, rock creek conservancy<\/a>, and nature forward<\/a>. the groups have trained almost 400 volunteers from all eight wards of the city, collecting more than 2,000 water samples<\/a> from 2019 to 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

each wednesday morning from may to september \u2014 considered the outdoor recreational season \u2014 teams of volunteers take water samples at two dozen<\/a> sites across the city and test for ph balance, e. coli levels, water temperature, air temperature, and turbidity, a measure of water clarity. they also note if they see anyone in the water, as many people and their pets still wade in the creek despite park signs warning against it. the results are posted<\/a> each friday and updated in the swim guide app<\/a>, which lets users check the water quality of nearby beaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n