Volunteer Stream Monitoring & Cleanup in DC area

Here is a list of volunteer stream quality monitoring and Adopt-A-Stream programs in the Washington DC metropolitan area, including northern Virginia. Washington DC and the surrounding areas are within the Potomac watershed, which is within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  For this same kind of information but general to North America, see the separate page titled Watershed and Stream-quality Organizations.

Definitions: Stream quality monitoring involves sampling bugs (benthic macroinvertebrates) in streams.  The Adopt-A-Stream programs involve cleaning trash from a stream area, and reporting problems.  A watershed is a body of water, such as a stream, and the area of land that supplies its water.

Virginia

City of Alexandria

Stream Clean-up
Alexandria Earth Day

Arlington County

All three of the following programs are grouped under what Arlington calls "Project Watershed Watch".

Volunteer Stream Monitoring, Watershed Management Plan
Environmental Planning Office (Watershed Programs), of the Department of Environmental Services
Stream cleanup
Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, [message board]
Adopt-a-Stream
Beautification Committee, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Resources

Fairfax County

Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program
Northern Virginia Soil & Water Conservation District (NVSWCD) [also],
one of 47 Virginia DCR's Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCD)
Stream Protection Strategy (SPS)
Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES)
Adopt-A-Stream, 703-246-2201
Fairfax County Health Department, Division of Environmental Health, Surface Water

City of Falls Church

City Streams Task Force
Natural Resources programs, Falls Church Village Preservation and Improvement Society

Loudoun County

Stream Monitoring Classes
Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy
Stream Monitoring Program
Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District (L-SWCD),
one of 47 Virginia DCR's Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCD)

State-wide

Save Our Streams (SOS) Program [also]
IWLA's Virginia Division, including the Northern Virginia Chapter and the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter.
Adopt-A-Stream
Soil and Water Conservation Programs,
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR)
Citizen Water Quality Monitoring
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Clean Virginia Waterways
Department of Natural Sciences, Longwood University

Reference

Nonprofit groups

District of Columbia

Water Quality Division and Watershed Protection Division
Bureau of Environmental Quality, of the Environmental Health Administration of the DC Department of Health

Maryland

Montgomery County

County Stream Monitoring Program and Stream Teams Program, Streams & Watersheds
Biological Monitoring and Watershed Quality
Department of Environmental Protection
Cabin John Creek Monitoring program and Cleanup
Friends of Cabin John Creek Watershed
Paint Branch stream cleanups and monitoring
Eyes of Paint Branch

Prince George's County

Water Quality & Monitoring program
Watersheds section of the Programs & Planning Division of the Department of Environmental Resources (DER)

State-wide

Volunteer Water Monitoring, and volunteer Stream Monitoring & Aquatic Resources
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Maryland Water Monitoring Council
Maryland Geological Survey
Adopt-A-Stream and Project Heartbeat, volunteer stream monitoring programs
Save Our Streams

Reference

Nonprofit groups

Washington DC metropolitan area

Volunteer Stream Monitoring & Cleanup

Water Quality Monitoring Project
Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS)
Bridging the Watershed (BTW)
One of five "National Park Labs" programs
Chesapeake Bay Citizens Monitoring Program
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Inc.
Water Resources program
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Department of Environmental Programs
Volunteer, Potomac River and watershed
Potomac Conservancy
Chesapeake Bay Initiative [also]
Environmental Quality Division (EQD), U.S. Army Environmental Center (USAEC)
Annual Potomac Watershed Cleanup
Alice Ferguson Foundation
Volunteer river cleanups
Anacostia Watershed Society
Project Monitoring
Potomac Watershed Partnership
Water Monitoring information
US EPA, Region 3: The Mid-Atlantic Region
Volunteer Water Monitoring
US EPA, Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic States), Water Protection Division

Reference

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

Nonprofit groups

Environmental groups not specifically water related

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