Money flowing to water testing

Alicia Robinson

State funds from Proposition 13 will pay for an expansion of Orange

County CoastKeeper’s citizen water-monitoring program that will start

in February, CoastKeeper project manager Ray Hiemstra said.

Proposition 13 is a $2-billion bond for water-quality improvement

approved by California voters in 2000. The first round of funding is

now becoming available, and CoastKeeper will get $180,000, Hiemstra

said.

The coastal protection organization began its citizen monitoring

in January 2001 with money from the federal Environmental Protection

Agency, and the program has been a big success, he said. Volunteers

are trained to measure the PH level, conductivity, temperature and

other aspects of water quality in seven streams in three counties.

“We have a core of regular people that come out, and some of them

have been doing it for the entire project,” he said.

The new funds will allow CoastKeeper to add at least 14 monitoring

sites in northern Orange County, including Buck Gully and the Delhi

Channel, as well as training new volunteer monitors and offering

outreach programs. The added sites will be monitored for two years.

An annual report with results from the original monitoring program

is due soon, Hiemstra said.

Data from citizen water-monitoring is used by groups such as the

Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board that need the

information but would have to spend a lot to gather it themselves, he

added.

Through citizen monitoring, officials have learned that some areas

have bacteria problems, while others have better levels of salinity

and conductivity than expected, Hiemstra said.

The equipment for the water tests is simple to use, said volunteer

water monitor Nicole Riley of Dana Point. Riley has been spending

about two to three hours a month testing water for CoastKeeper for

the past year.

“Basically, you take a sample of the water, and you compare it

with a bunch of different machines,” she said.

For the new phase of testing, volunteers are learning to do

“biological assessment,” which involves counting the living organisms

in water samples, she said.

Riley got involved with the program when she moved to Orange

County from San Diego.

She enjoys the work because the people are fun and because she

gets to help the environment, she said.

“I have the potential to stop something that could be very

disastrous,” she said.

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer water monitor can call

Orange County CoastKeeper at (949)723-5424.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.