OPERATION CLEARWATER to begin its 37th year in 2011

Now that spring is here, can the swimming season be far away? It’s time to plan for this summer’s water quality monitoring program. Operation Clearwater will supply swimmers and other recreational water users again this year with valuable information on the bacteriological quality of their water.

When your association joins, or rejoins, OPERATION CLEARWATER this year, we will provide regular monitoring of the microbial water quality at your waterfront recreational area. This program was recognized in 2003 by the local Sierra Club chapter as an excellent program for monitoring and improving water quality and was featured this year in the Maryland Public TV program Rivers of Worry as a model for community-based water quality analysis.

We sample community beaches and marinas throughout the Severn River watershed, collecting water samples on Wednesday mornings, and providing data on counts of enterococci by Thursday afternoons. Data will be posted on the web at www.severnriver.org. Samples are collected by Sally or by a student at Anne Arundel Community College and are processed at the Environmental Center at AACC.

The cost of each week’s sample is $27. Communities may sign up for the full 14 week program (May 18 to Aug 17) at a cost of $378 or they may elect to be sampled every other week at a cost of $189. Applications will not be sent by mail this year, but they can be downloaded here. Please feel free to contact me by email or phone with questions at Clearwater@severnriver.org or at work 410 777-2842.

Click below for an application.

Operation Clearwater 2011 Application

2011 Illness Tracking Sheet (Online entry version, Word version, PDF version)

Operation Clearwater Results

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