Champions

When a pipe burst at the old Gold King Mine in Silverton, CO, pouring over three million gallons of polluted water into a tributary to the Animas River, the heros of the day were River Watch Colorado. With one of the longest running baseline datasets for water quality in the region, they were ready to spring into action to ensure the health of their streams.

When it comes to holding polluters accountable, Waterkeepers lead the way in Baltimore. In 2021 Blue Water Baltimore’s weekly water quality program uncovered two local wastewater treatment plants that were in non-compliance with their Clean Water Act Permits, prompting legal action from BWB and the state of Maryland.

Swimming has been illegal in waters surrounding the nation’s capital since the 1970s. However, through weekly recreational water quality monitoring, Anacostia Riverkeeper and their partners have produced consistent baseline data since 2019 in a push to see swimming return to DC’s waters.

The Arundel Rivers Federation currently faces the looming threat of suburban sprawl and development. To combat this and protect their section of the Chesapeake Bay they’ve enacted weekly water quality monitoring to constantly assess threats from sprawling region.

The state of Mississippi may or may not have an impaired rivers problem - the quality of 89% of the state’s perennial rivers and streams is currently unknown. Thankfully Pearl Riverkeeper has stepped up to help implement a community-led water quality program, helping supplement existing water quality datasets in the area.

What impact does road salt application have on our streams and rivers? A growing number of citizen scientists armed with chloride test strips and geo-located photos have committed to documenting the connection across the northern half of the United States thanks to Izaak Walton League and their Winter Salt Watch Program.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) shuttered beaches, docked fishing boats, and triggered catastrophic fish kills and marine mammal stranding events in Southern Florida in 2018. Calusa Waterkeeper has trained dozens of Rangers to traverse their waterways to document possible HABs and report repercussions of their presence.