Alliance Citizen Monitoring Database

The Alliance Citizen Monitoring program is a regional network of more than 145
trained volunteers who perform weekly water quality tests that help track the
condition of waters flowing toward the Chesapeake Bay. These dedicated
volunteers monitor rivers across the Chesapeake region in Pennsylvania,
Maryland and Virginia. Some have worked with the Alliance for more than ten
years, watching their rivers through the seasons and regularly submitting the
valuable data they collect.

Along with weekly tests for dissolved oxygen, pH, water clarity, and other
parameters, volunteer monitors also have participated in special projects. For
example, because excess nutrients are the major problem facing the Chesapeake
Bay, some monitors participated in a nutrient sampling program on the Upper
James, Piankatank, and York rivers in Virginia; the Conestoga River in
Pennsylvania; and the Patuxent River in Maryland. In Pennsylvania, volunteers
assisted in preparing an inventory of streamside forest buffers in the
Conodoguinet Creek watershed.