Only volunteers that have been approved through the ACE Project can register to load water quality data.
Submit Your Data
To submit data, go to the “Citizen Testing” tab and click on “Submit Your Data.” You will then be able to login with your username and the password given to you by your organization or trainer. If you need help finding your log-in information, email aww-webmaster@appalachianwaterwatch.org.
To log the monitoring location:
1. If you do not know the latitude and longitude, you can locate your location by using the interactive map on the webpage. Use the “Map” button to identify nearby landmarks (towns, streets or public buildings) and zoom in on your location by either double clicking your location or using the scale on the left side of the screen. Once you have zoomed in, you can single click on your location to automatically generate the latitude and longitude.
2. If you know the latitude and longitude of your field sampling location from a GPS device you have taken with you, type in the latitude and longitude.
3. If you are submitting measurements for a site for which you have already submitted before, you can click on the existing map marker and copy and paste the latitude and longitude into the required fields using your browser’s edit functions.
Be sure to type in the county and state information for your observation as well.
To record water testing data:
1. Water Quality Data: Submit water quality measurements by typing in the numerical values you’ve recorded. The measurement units are included.
2. Date and Time: The page will automatically fill in the current date and time of your page submission – correct this to reflect the date and time that you took the measurements in the field.
3. Weather: Write a brief description of the weather during the time your measurements were taken and also include information on recent rainfall.
4. Other Observations: The last box allows you to include any other observations you would like to report. Please indicate any blatant Clean Water Act violations or alarming data values.
When you are finished filling in each field, click on “Log Observation” to finalize your report. To view reports already submitted by you, or by other volunteers, click on the “Report Cards” link under “Citizen Testing” and use the interactive map to look at data for specific locations. Any report you submit should be immediately viewable in the “Report Cards” page. If you have submitted multiple reports in the same location, use the “Earth” view on the map to display all markers in a single location.
To upload a picture:
You must first log a site report card using the above steps. Ideally, your photos will be accompanied by water quality monitoring data taken on the same day; however, we know that you may come across the opportunity to photograph important findings without also being able to take water quality measurements on that day. If this is the case, upload the picture through the “Submit a Photo Observation” link under the “Citizen Monitoring” tab.
Once you have filled in all the appropriate fields in the site report card page, click “Log Observations.” You will then be taken to the next page where you can upload a photo or a video.
If you need to upload a photo or video from a particular day after you have already logged your observations for the site report card, you can go back to any of your entries through the “Report Cards” link under “Citizen Testing” tab. Clicking “View Here” next to your entry will take you back to the page through which you can upload a photo or video. You can also upload multiple photos or videos this way. Please upload photos and videos that correspond with the date of testing.
Photo uploading can take several minutes. Please leave the browser open for at least 5 minutes, after which, you can reload the page to see if your photo has uploaded yet.