Question: I am interested in testing local water quality myself in river. Where can I start?

Agaa is asking a question about general
Follow this topic

by Agaa | November 11, 2020 19:31 | #25046


For conducting a student project, I am interested in testing river water quality in my city, what do you think would be the best way to conduct the research in a small team. The main question we want to investigate is what impacts the most quality of the water



6 Comments

Hi. I'm not an expert, but I have some experience. There are many aspects of water quality; turbidity, pH, metals, pesticides, and, what I know most about, bacteriological quality analysis. We probably need to know your motivation; is this river threatened by industrial pollution, or by other kinds of pollution?

I've co-written this "Water Checklist" which was designed for Engineers Without Borders engineers for they kind of work they do in low and middle income countries; it may be relevant to you, though your interest may be different: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rlqD-or39faRLLl7-Zdr2LtbXCHACSLFuBqbDTnP0Yw/edit?usp=sharing

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Thanks @robertlread ! This is a great guide. I left a question on your Google Doc.


Reply to this comment...


Most states already have volunteer groups that do water quality monitoring. Many of these programs were started or are under the guidance of programs that were a part of the Clean Water Act. Find a group in your state you can help with. They are great in that they provide training and equipment. In addition you are contributing to a larger data gathering effort. If I knew your state, I could be more specific.

@webbhm do you have a general resource link we could share? I know there are informational River Network resources I've seen this year for some inspiration too @Agaa: https://www.rivernetwork.org/citizen-based-water-quality-monitoring-covid-19/

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.


I suggest you start with these two resources, and see where they lead you: https://acwi.gov/monitoring/vm/

https://archive.epa.gov/water/archive/web/html/index-18.html

Most of these groups are connected to the Clean Water Act that was set up by the EPA.


Reply to this comment...


@Agaa thanks for the question! Another post I'd recommend you check out here on the Public Lab website is: https://publiclab.org/notes/anngneal/12-08-2017/7-ways-to-measure-monitor-and-evaluate-water-quality

What kind of water quality monitoring are you interested in? Learn more about what other people have asked or are interested in around this topic here: https://publiclab.org/wiki/water-quality

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Reply to this comment...


Log in to comment