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Tending the Watersheds
Once again this summer, the toxic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida attacked fish populations and people in North Carolina and in parts of Chesapeake Bay. But state governments were better prepared to cope with these outbreaks than they were during the Pfiesteria panic of 1997. So were concerned citizens who are acquiring and passing along to authorities more and more detailed information about conditions within their ecosystems. Thanks to their efforts, which are backed by laws assigning rivers, lakes, and wetlands pollution "budgets" against which discharge permits are allowed, watershed based monitoring and compliance continues its move toward center stage as a working regulatory framework.
Organized by civic groups, schools and local governments, with support and encouragement from some state and federal agencies, the new watershed tenders voluntarily watch and measure. They clean up, help restore, educate, act as an ever more effective early warning system.
An example of how useful this kind of citizen action can be comes from North Carolina, where the Neuse River Foundation (NRF) and Rick Dove, Neuse RiverKeeper, have been operating their River Protection Program since 1993. This flexible and responsive monitoring system now functions with almost military precision.
With thousands to millions of dead fish surfacing seasonally, and with hog spills and other illegal runoff flowing year-round, NRF's River Protection program has a decentralized command structure reflecting the ecosystem and its needs. In the lower Neuse, from just above New Bern "down-river," 135 Creek Keepers patrol the estuary on a creek by creek basis, measuring water quality, identifying pollution problems and collecting fish samples, which are reported to the appropriate agencies. For each creek, a Creek Master coordinates monitoring efforts with the Neuse RiverKeeper. Upstream, 130 Stream Keepers are similarly organized with units primarily tasked to identify illegal spills and runoff, and through educational projects, to foster protection and prevention.
The strength of NRF's River Protection program extends well beyond citizens taking responsibility for their watershed and getting involved, for it operates closely with state agencies, universities and others working in the watershed. The program's effectiveness is best demonstrated when something goes wrong. Fishkills are verified, samples collected, and events reported to the state's Neuse River Rapid Response Team. To identify the source of runoff or pollution plumes, or to quantify the extent of fishkills, the volunteer Neuse River Air Force (Atlantic CoastWatch, February 1998) takes photographs and videos that are forwarded to state agencies or used in NRF's own legal proceedings against polluters.
NRF's River Protection program is one of many citizen volunteer monitoring efforts already in existence or being launched. Among the new ones is the The Watershed Institute started by Charles Lord and Maxwell Kennedy at Boston College, which will provide technical and legal support to watershed efforts statewide, and will soon initiate the pilot phase of a 10 school K-12 monitoring project in the Charles and Mystic Rivers. For more from NRF E-mail nrf@cconnect.org. For more from NRF E-mail nrf@cconnect.org. For The Watershed Institute call (617) 552-0928. For general information on voluntary monitoring, a good place to start is www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/vol.html. |
