San Diego Coastkeeper
How You Can Help
Water Monitoring
Get Involved
San Diego Coastkeeper’s Watershed Monitoring Program strives to:
We achieve these goals by engaging hundreds of dedicated citizen volunteer water monitors, providing useful water quality information to the general public, and partnering with a wide variety of regulatory agencies, academic institutions, businesses and non-profit organizations.
SD Coastkeeper is always looking for members of the community who are interested in getting involved with gathering data to improve and protect the surface waters of San Diego. If you are interested in collecting water quality samples and taking basic water chemistry measurements on a regular basis as a volunteer for SD Coastkeeper, please send an e-mail to sign up to participate in one of our monthly trainings and to join our team of surface water quality volunteers. Sign up by sending an e-mail to Preston Lam.
Important Note:
Space is limited to volunteers who have previously completed citizen water monitoring training with Coastkeeper. Please RSVP one week in advance so that we can make preparations. Future trainings will be advertised by email and through our website. We ask that participants be over 18 years of age, or that they have a parent or guardian accompany minors for the field component of the watershed monitoring activities.
Water Monitoring Training
Water Monitoring Training is available once a month on the following dates. The location rotates between the San Diego Coastkeeper office in Point Loma (PL) and a North County location (NC) which is still being determined. Please email Preston Lam at prestonl@sdcoastkeeper.org for more information.
2009 Water Monitoring Events
Third Saturday of every month excluding: September & December.
| EVENT DATE | REGISTRATION DEADLINE | |
| (SDCK Wed. prior) | (BWTF Mon. prior) | |
· January 24 |
Jan 21 | Jan 19 |
| · February 21 | Feb 18 | Feb 16 |
| · March 21 | Mar 18 | Mar 16 |
| · April 18 | Apr 15 | Apr 18 |
| · May 16 | May 13 | May 11 |
| · June 20 | Jun 17 | Jun 15 |
| · July 18 | Jul 15 | Jun13 |
| · August 15 | Aug 12 | Aug 10 |
| · September 12 | Sept 9 | Sept 7 |
| · October 17 | Oct 14 | Oct 12 |
| · November 21 | Nov 18 | Nov 16 |
| · December 12 | Dec 9 | Dec 7 |
Due to limited space and high volunteer interest, we are asking that volunteers register to participate by Wednesday prior to the event.
More Information
To find out more about World Water Monitoring Day, Coastal Snapshot Day and other projects please contact Karen Franz at (619)758-7743 or by e-mail at karenjm@sdcoastkeeper.org.
Citizen Water Monitoring Data
Citizen Monitoring data is now available on-line. Click here to access the maps, data reports and charts. The data portal contains field screening data collected throughout 2006 by volunteers that were trained in accordance with State Water Resource Control Board and Environmental Protection Agency field methods.
Please note that the maps are working prototypes (last updated in December 2006), and we are currently soliciting feedback from the public in order to improve these maps. If you have specific feedback, please click here to send an e-mail to Karen Franz, SD Coastkeeper’s Watershed Monitoring Program Director.
These data were collected as a part of a Prop. 13 grant, in partnership with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Diego State University and San Diego Stream Team. Additional partners to this effort include The San Diego County Airport Authority, San Diego Surfrider and the Golden State Flycasters.
To volunteer for citizen monitoring, please send an e-mail to Preston Lam, who coordinates volunteers for water monitoring activities.
Internship/Fellowship Position Available
San Diego Coastkeeper has a variety of internship positions open at this time. All of the interns at Coastkeeper get hands-on experience, developing skills for future careers in the non-profit or for-profit sectors. Our internship positions have flexible hours based on your school/work schedules. All of these positions are non-paid.
2008 Watershed Program Associates (4 positions available)
The Watershed Program trains citizen monitors to collect water samples and perform field screening throughout San Diego County. This is a great opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the environmental field, and to move your career forward.
We are seeking dedicated individuals to become involved with this program to provide assistance with the following:
- Conduct trainings with field equipment and sample collection methods
- Work with Watershed Monitoring Program Director to populate the volunteer base through partnerships with other community groups and non-profits, and identify areas to conduct water monitoring to assess point-source and non-point source pollution
- Manage collected data and perform basic data interpretations by watershed
- Help with logistics between North County and Point Loma training Nodes
- Be available as a part of a “pollution response” team to do site investigations
- Perform outreach associated with this program
If you are interested in this position please contact Karen Franz at karenjm@sdcoastkeeper.org or 619-758-7743, ext 113. To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to karenjm@sdcoastkeeper.org.
2008 Watershed Captains
The Watershed Program trains citizen monitors to collect water samples and perform field screening throughout San Diego County. We are seeking individuals interested in becoming watershed Captains, to generate data and engage communities in participating in our monthly water quality monitoring activities.
The 11 watersheds are:
- Tijuana River
- Otay River
- Sweetwater Watershed
- Pueblo Watershed (Chollas and Paleta Creeks)
- San Diego River
- Pensaquitos Watershed (Los Penasquitos Lagoon, Tecolote and Rose Creeks, draining to Mission Bay)
- San Dieguito River (includes Lake Hodges)
- Carlsbad Hydrologic Unit (Escondido & Reidy Creeks, San Marcos Creek, Agua Hedionda & Buena Creeks, Buena Vista Creek and Loma Alta Creek)
- San Luis Rey River
- Santa Margarita River
If you are interested in more information and getting involved as a Watershed Captain, please contact Karen Franz at karenjm@sdcoastkeeper.org or 619-758-7743, ext 113.
GIS (Geographic Information System) Intern
The primary responsibilities of this intern will be to build and maintain a GIS database, using ArcGIS, in order to use this tool to advocate for watershed and coastal protection. The intern will work with a small team of Coastkeeper staff and outside experts to develop the GIS data structure and to develop interpretations of data collected using GIS. Data collected will vary based on project, and intern will be responsible for working with members of the staff to geographically represent a variety of projects using GIS and special mapping tools. This is a (8-10) hour per week position, beginning mid-January for (6) months.
If you are interested in this position please contact Karen Franz at karenjm@sdcoastkeeper.org or 619-758-7743, ext 113.