OCEAN CITY – On the shores of the Isle Wight Bay on Monday afternoon, two new, free smart phone apps that will enable the public to aid in coastal water protection were launched.
Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips, who doubles as the executive director of the Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT), demonstrated the Swim Guide app that lets users know if their favorite water hole or beach is safe for swimming and the Water Reporter app that lets citizens report water pollution problems.
Phillips announced the focus of this weekend’s launch of the 2014 Swim Guide is to encourage citizens to celebrate the right to clean, swimmable waters and to promote the importance of the Clean Water Act, established in 1972, in protecting local waterways.
Provided and managed by member groups within the Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of 207 water protection groups worldwide, the Swim Guide helps the user locate the closest, cleanest beach, get directions, view photos, and determine if the water is safe for swimming. The Swim Guide also allows the user to share the whole adventure with their friends and family on social networks.
“We are blessed with ocean beaches that are not heavily impacted by stormwater runoff. In fact, Ocean City and Assateague Island are nationally ranked each year with some of the cleanest, safest swimming beaches in the country,” Phillips said. “However, I’m often asked if the creeks and bays are safe to swim in, especially after a heavy rainfall. The Swim Guide provides a free, easy to use way for swimmers and surfers to see the most recent bacteria data for all their favorite bathing beaches or waterways they use for direct contact watersports like jet skiing, kayaking and SUP paddling.”
The Swim Guide utilizes water quality monitoring data from government authorities and other organizations conducting routine testing to determine the water quality at nearly 5,000 beaches across North America. Local testing locations in Ocean City, on Assateague Island, and in the Coastal Bays waterways are updated weekly during the swimming season by Worcester County, the National Park Service and ACT.
Bacteria data for Ocean City and Assateague Island ocean beaches, the Public Landing pier, Castaways Campground and swimming holes like Horn Island shoals in Isle Wight Bay, St. Martin River, Herring Creek and Turville Creek are collected, analyzed and the test results are compared to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) single test limit for safe swimming levels.
In Swim Guide, testing locations in the Ocean City/Assateague area that are below the threshold are green, and locations whose most recent results are above the limit are red, representing an increased risk of illness.
The innovative Swim Guide app originated with a team from the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper chapter, which set out to determine if it was safe to swim in Lake Ontario. Seven years later, in 5,000 locations people can now check the status and cleanliness of their local beaches in real time.
“This year we have added two new sites to the Swim Guide in Worcester County,” Phillips said. “We’ve added two favorite kayak launch areas, Lewis Road launch on Ayres Creek and Isle Wight Nature Park on Isle of Wight Bay. We will also once again partner with the National Park Service and Accomack County to post data on bayside and seaside bathing beaches in northern Accomack County, Va. The Swim Guide helps connect communities to their waterways, raising awareness and appreciation for clean water.”
The other app, Water Reporter, enables citizens to share information on recreational experiences and report local pollution in their community. The data that is gathered is used to map, prioritize, and expedite restoration action.
Participants can download the app and take it with them on a hike, bike ride or paddling trip, and if they should run into a large scale trash dump, sediment leaving a construction site or anything they feel doesn’t look right they use Water Reporter to take some photos, tag a few attributes and automatically send it to the Assateague Coastkeeper for a follow up.
“Citizens who are engaged are the best stewards of our coastal environment,” Phillips said. “Equipping them with user friendly, free smart phone apps is one way to help protect water quality in our coastal watershed.
ACT encourages participants in Water Reporter to snap a photo of their favorite beach, kayak trail, biking trail or fishing expedition and post it to the Water Reporter map. The app is also applicable to the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed, and pollution reports outside of the coastal bays will automatically be shared through a live community map that is a living depiction of how and where the people are using the bays and where restoration must occur.