History & Mission
Background of Alabama Water Watch
From its beginning, the modern environmental movement in the United States has been a people’s movement. In the 1960’s, Americans began to notice across the nation and in their own communities serious degradation of the air, water, and land. People became outraged and actively involved in monitoring, restoring, and protecting nature, and they demanded change.
In the early 1970’s, seminal legislation like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act brought a second wave of action. Science, data, and technical expertise became paramount. Large public and private institutions comprised of professional policy experts, scientists, and lawyers developed and took the lead in overseeing the implementation of technical and complex laws and policies. Because of the enactment of these and other important laws, people believed that environmental problems would be solved.
But these problems have not been solved, and at some point it became apparent that there is only so much that large professional organizations, laws and regulations can accomplish by themselves. Citizens in communities realized they cannot afford to stand on the sidelines; that they are crucially important participants when it comes to watching over, caring for, and protecting the places they know and love best.
Alabama Water Watch (AWW), established in 1992, uniquely melds together strengths of the first two waves of modern environmentalism, community-based citizen activism and scientifically precise data gathering and interpretation. Developed and managed at Auburn University by Dr. Bill Deutsch, AWW is a proven and effective state-wide program for training and engaging individuals and groups to become credible and informed watchdogs, advocates, and educators on behalf of Alabama’s bays, lakes, rivers, and streams.
AWW is outcome focused, aspirational in nature, committed to place-based citizen engagement, insistent on scientific and technical precision, and collaborative in approach. As a result, AWW fills a unique niche and has credibility and positive working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders in the public, private, educational, and civic sectors. AWW is comprised of two components, the Program and the Association.
The Program is coordinated from the Auburn University Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures and provides training, technical support, and data management for citizen monitors, educators, and the general public. The Program staff oversees the day-to-day operations of the AWW office and provides a wide range of services to monitors, including: conducting training sessions; compiling and maintaining an extensive database on citizen volunteers, monitoring sites, and water quality data; interpreting technical data gathered by monitors; producing a variety of educational and outreach media; and providing online summary graphs and maps.
The non-profit Alabama Water Watch Association (AWWA) is an affiliation of monitoring groups and citizens that works closely with, and in support of, the AWW Program Office in their shared mission of educating citizens, local governments, and businesses regarding water quality issues and opportunities, testing waters statewide, and using collected data to improve both water quality and policy. The Association supplies chemical reagents for monitors, and provides communications, outreach, coordination, fundraising, membership, and oversight functions for the AWW monitors.
The AWWA is led by an Executive Director, and a Board of Directors comprised of community leaders and citizen monitors representing major watersheds of the state. AWWA has received funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, Legacy, Inc., the World Wildlife Fund, the Cahaba River Society, the Alabama Rivers Alliance, and other grants and gifts.
Since its inception, AWW has involved over 5,300 individuals in 260 citizen groups with water monitoring. The USEPA approved monitoring training and data gathering processes are scientifically and technically rigorous. Several levels of training are offered for analysis of the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water. Monitors have sampled over 2,000 sites on 750 waterbodies, and submitted over 38,000 water chemistry and 8,000 bacteriological data forms.
With this in-the-field knowledge and experience, citizens are empowered to take action to initiate education, restoration, and protection efforts, and advocate for more sustainable water policy and management. Alabama Water Watch has documented a strong record of results. AWW and its groups have:
1. Developed Exploring Alabama’s Living Streams, an aquatic science curriculum that is endorsed by the Alabama Dept. of Education Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI). This curriculum is used by teachers across Alabama, as well as in Georgia and Mississippi.
2. Achieved the highest category of water use classification in the state, Outstanding Alabama Water, for Wolf Bay and Magnolia Springs
3. Worked with municipalities across the state to identify and remediate E.coli bacterial contamination.
4. Conducted education programs for adults and children affiliated with many public and private schools, environmental centers, and civic groups across the state.
A growing movement of educated, trained, and engaged citizens working in communities on behalf of America’s water resources has never been more important because the threats to America’s water resources are persistent and increasing: longstanding and newly discovered contaminants endanger water quality; in the next five years, shortages of fresh, clean water supplies are expected in 36 states; and freshwater ecosystems continue to degrade more rapidly than any other type of ecosystem.
If history is any guide, it is informed and engaged citizens that will catalyze the next wave of urgently needed reforms of water policy and management; reforms that are more holistic, systemic, and sustainable. Alabama Water Watch has effectively involved people in this movement for almost twenty years, building bridges of relationship with a broad mix of collaborators, adding value at every step. In the process, AWW has built an aspirational, credible, and highly respected brand consisting of technical and scientific expertise and community-based citizen engagement, all for the purpose of creating a more socially, economically and ecologically sustainable future.
