Thank you for your interest in being a volunteer! When you make a pledge to provide volunteer service, the local Waterkeeper program in your area will be notified and contact you with information on the kinds of activities they might have available.

Our local Waterkeepers rely on you to help them to protect and restore our local waterways. Volunteers help with trash cleanups, monitor water quality, staff events, report pollution, assist in the office, help advocate on issues by writing letters and providing testimony, and much more. Several of our Waterkeeper programs have volunteers help with water quality monitoring of local waterways. Volunteers undergo training and follow rigorous sampling protocol, usually from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year. Water quality data (e.g., bacteria levels and turbidity) is uploaded to maps and to the SwimGuide app. This is one way our Waterkeepers work to keep local waterways swimmable, fishable and drinkable.

Here is a list volunteer programs with your local Waterkeepers:

• Blue Water Baltimore
• Gunpowder Riverkeeper
• Potomac Riverkeeper Network
• James River Association
• Arundel Rivers Federation
• ShoreRivers
• Assateague Coastkeeper
• Patuxent Riverkeeper
• Anacostia Riverkeeper
• Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper

We may not have a Waterkeeper in your area, but if we do we will connect you right away. If we don’t, please consider other individual service opportunities like using the Water Reporter app to report pollution or adopting a storm drain in your neighborhood.

Water Reporter App

We have made it easier to find and report pollution — and to report the fun things you see and do on the river. Working with The Commons we developed a mobile app, which is a Bay-wide initiative, to gather critical data on the waterways you love! The Water Reporter App is available for download for free!

If you’re out and about and see debris flowing from a construction site, cows in your stream, or a pipe discharging questionable water, use the app to report it. Or if you are hiking, biking or paddling let us know and send photos & video. If your organization or group is planning a stream cleanup, tree planting, or any water related activity, please report those on the app as well! We will try to advertise far and wide.

Once your report is submitted it will be sent to your local Waterkeeper and to a live map available on the Water Reporter website. There are 17 local Waterkeepers in the Chesapeake Bay region waiting for your reports!

Learn more at http://www.waterreporter.org.

Swim Guide

Several of our Waterkeeper programs have volunteers help with water quality monitoring of local waterways. Volunteers undergo training and follow rigorous sampling protocol, usually from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year. Water quality data (e.g., bacteria levels and turbidity) is uploaded to maps and to the SwimGuide app. This is one way our Waterkeepers work to keep local waterways swimmable, fishable and drinkable.