The two citizen monitors in the Laguna are Steve Green and Gail Ohlander.

From Steve: Hi…. I'm Steve, and I'd first like to comment that Sebastopol is a wonderful town for myself, my wife and my two teenagers. We all feel very lucky to live here and enjoy having the best of northern California at our doorstep. My kids attend Analy high and for the last five years we have been participants in the downtown parade (in one group or another).
We live south of town near Hillcrest school, off Bloomfield road, and my kids and I volunteer our time to the CCWI cause.
When we do this work on the weekends… We get feedback from folks as they walk the trail. They ask me… what am I doing? When I tell them they say, " Thanks, keep up the great work"! Some even want information so they can add their support, too.
A couple of times I got this question, " is it safe to let my dog drink here"?
I hold up my sample bottle of semi-brown water and say "it may look bad, but for a dog it probably taste a lot better than the water in your toilet bowl".
What will I tell them after it rains and the runoff from the streets, Santa Rosa sewage plant and dairy farms has fouled the water? The Laguna at Sebastopol is a great place to experience how human activities affects the water we all depend on for our survival. The Laguna de Santa Rosa is an eco-system that provides information about how two large communities (Santa Rosa and Sebastopol) are affecting our local environment and the ground water we draw from wells.

From Gail: Occupational and environmental health is, and has been, a personal and professional interest. As a retired Occupational Health Nurse I was looking for community volunteer opportunities that meshed with my areas of interests, so I was delighted to identify the CCWI group. I have been with CCWI for about two years and consider it a bonus that water monitoring is an outside activity that is done in the California sunshine. My four water monitoring areas are near Sebastopol, so if you are interested in seeing what CCWI does please contact CCWI @ 707-824-4370 and join me for a field experience.

Site descriptions:

LAG030: At a permanent gage behind the Community Center in Sebastopol.
LAG040: At bridge at Todd Rd.
LAG050: At bridge at Llano Rd.
LAG080: At bridge at Stony Point Rd & Rohnert Park Expressway
COL020: Colgan Creek, tributary to the Laguna; North of LAG050 on Llano Rd.; Just north of Wastewater Treatment Plant; on west side of bridge