Kentucky Watershed Watch

Background:
Beginning in the 1990s, Kentucky Watershed Watch volunteers began sampling waterways throughout the state of Kentucky. More than 3,000 individuals in the state give their time in an effort to improve Kentucky's waterways through this coordinated campaign of water quality monitoring, skill development and advocacy. Eight local Watershed Steering Committees carry out the work of this project in the state's eight major river basins:

Upper Green River
Tradewater & Lower Green Rivers
Upper Cumberland River
Four Rivers (Lower Cumberland, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Lower Ohio)
Kentucky River
Salt River
Licking River
Big Sandy River

Each local watershed steering committee develops its own goals and operational plans based on the needs in its communities and unique conditions in its waterways. The local watershed steering committees cooperate through an Interbasin Coordinating Committee to develop the scientific protocols, training resources, financial resources, data management, organizational support and leadership development that ensure the delivery of Watershed Watch services.

Volunteers collect samples at more than 700 active sampling sites in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (since some watersheds cross state lines), and have collected data at over 2,700 stations over the 10 year history of the program. Technical assistance is provided to local watershed groups so that they can address issues raised by their monitoring and assessment efforts. Annual "Watershed Protection Conferences" are held in each local watershed, during which individuals, community organizations, scientific researchers, and agency personnel come together to discuss the condition of assessed waterways, as revealed by the sampling results.

Typically, sampling events occur throughout the spring, summer and fall and are conducted to test for herbicides and pesticides; pathogens; chemicals and nutrients; and metals. If high readings are found during the pathogen testing event, sites are normally sampled a second time during the summer.

This online database provides historical water quality sampling results from the Watershed Watch programs in each of the eight major basins in the state of Kentucky. It will continue to be updated as new data become available. The Watershed Watch volunteers and organizers greatly appreciate the assistance provided by Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) staff in creating and updating this online database tool. This service is invaluable as a way of providing easy, direct access to Watershed Watch sampling data.

How to use this online database:
Follow the instructions below the "Water Watch Site Search" header to search for Kentucky Water Watch site locations. You can also use the map tools (below the map) to zoom to an area of interest. There are 3 options for zooming: use the "zoom in" zoom in

tool, use the "Zoom to a Location" tool to find and zoom to a specific geographic area (such as a watershed or stream name), or simply choose a scale. Once zoomed into any scale, the KRWW monitoring points will be turned on and are symbolized by the red pushpin markers. Then, by using the id point show coordinates at a point

tool or the id area identify point features for the selected rectangular area

tool, you can access location information about a single sample site or group of sampling sites and the site-specific data.

Water Watch Site Search:
Search for sites by volunteer name, organization, or site ID. A table will display below with the identifying data for each site returned, a link to view the sampling data for each site, and a link to zoom to each site on the map.