Our Mission

Community Clean Water Institute (CCWI) is dedicated to protecting water quality and public health throughout Northern California by identifying pollution sources through the collection and analysis of water quality data. CCWI shares the information collected with government regulatory agencies and the public, and engages in education and community outreach activities.

Mermaids Work for Clean Water

Vira the Mermaid, a long-time benefactor and advocate of CCWI, appeared in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat earlier this month.The story (read it here) describes Vira's innovative and creative efforts to demonstrate habitat restoration and increase environmental awareness here in Sonoma County and in her travels across the country.

The tenth annual Mermaidfest 2012 is set for October 28 at the Rio Nido Roadhouse on the Russian River. Read more about the festivities here.

The Fog to Bog Quest

CCWI has partnered with the Atascadero / Green Valley Watershed Council to create a watershed Quest in the backcountry of Ragle Ranch Regional Park. A Quest is an interactive treasure hunt that teaches people about special places. Learn about this seasonal wetland, engage in water quality observations, and have fun while adventuring in this section of the Atascadero / Green Valley watershed.

Quest participants: click here to view preliminary results.

Online Interactive Water Quality Database

Community Clean Water Institute now has available to the public an online interactive water quality database for streams and rivers in Sonoma County. Data collected by CCWI since 2001 is displayed in both graph and table format for over 100 monitoring sites. To explore further click here.

Data Displayed

Dissolved oxygen
pH
Electrical conductivity
Turbidity
Air and water temperatures
Nitrate - N
Phosphate - P

Get to know your watershed throught this easy interactive tool. Choose your water body of interest, time frame, and site location to compare trends and changes over time. Export the date to your own computer for further analysis.

Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring

Volunteer to monitor water quality in your watershed by working with CCWI. Collect important water quality data, and educate your neighbors about best practices for watershed protection. For more information on citizen monitoring, click here.

Climate Change

We proudly support the Sonoma County Community Climate Action Plan! To find out more about this group and for ways to get involved, click here.

Take Action!

What can you do to protect your watershed? For a list of resources, to send comments to decision-makers, and protect clean water, click here.

The Water Rights, Privatization and Public Trust Program

Click Here

Instream Flow Monitoring Guide

Click Here

Dutch Bill Creek Water Quality Study 2009

The primary objective of CCWI’s Dutch Bill Creek Water Quality, Turbidity, Nutrients and Bacteria Study was to collect water samples on Dutch Bill Creek over the 2007/2008 and the 2008/2009 winters in order to document and analyze the water quality of Dutch Bill Creek during storm events. A secondary objective was to train interns and interested citizens in the study and to present the information to the public. To see the full report click here.

Handbook

Maps

2010 Annual Report

Click cover page to open.

Here's a map showing Surface Water Temperature for many of our monitoring sites during June 2009. Here's a map for May 2009. Yes, high temperature is considered a pollutant, since salmonids require cold waters to survive and thrive. Optimum temperature for rearing coho salmonids is generally between 10° C and 16° [C Welsh et.al. (2001); Hines and Ambrose (1998)].

Click cover page to open.