Sierra Club Water Sentinel Program

Providing data to state environmental agencies and EPA helps point up potential problems. Critics worry they don’t meet rigorous scientific standards.

With about 190,000 volunteers, trained and equipped by the Sierra Club, checking on water quality at their designated sites the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is getting lots of help.

Critics of the Water Sentinel Program point to the lack of scientific standards, which can result in data that may not be rigorous enough to enable the agency to convict violators. What they fail to acknowledge is that, without the volunteers, many watersheds would have no data at all.

Rather than the usual ivory tower attitude, doubters would be better served by meeting some of the volunteers. They might be pleasantly surprised at how many intelligent, highly educated people serve programs they are passionate about.

If the EPA and state environmental offices aren’t completely satisfied with the quality of data, they should aid in improving the training and equipment provided to the volunteers. This would, in the long run, be more effective, and less expensive, than increasing the number of employees doing water quality monitoring.

The volunteers are likely to be more aware of local issues that could affect the future of their waterways. Utilizing them effectively rather than criticizing makes more sense.