Calling all water testing volunteers

Monday, April 23, 2007

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This is the kit volunteers are given to conduct the testing.

There are more than 225 lakes in Hillsborough, and the county would like to see each one tested every month.

Currently, many of them are just being tested once a year, an unacceptable number to the county, which is counting on volunteers to help out.

Hillsborough County's LAKEWATCH program currently has 85 volunteers and the Stream Water Watch program has 30-40 volunteers. The county would like to double those numbers.

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"If you can test the water in your pool, you can do this," said Hillsborough County chief environmental scientist Jason Mickel. "I mean it's a little bit more dedication than that. You have to have a little bit of a passion for the environment to want to dedicate the time and go out there and do this. But other than that, anybody can learn how to do it."

The county provides free training through the statewide LAKEWATCH group. The training takes about two hours, and then once a month, the volunteers go to their assigned locations and conduct the water sampling. All of that data then gets dumped into Hillsborough's water atlas, so the information is available online for everyone.

If you have any questions about this program or would like to volunteer, call the county's stormwater program at (813) 307-1824.