EPA, U.S. Geological Survey launch Village Blue water quality data project for Baltimore

Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Baltimore communities will soon be able to access real-time water quality monitoring data through the Village Blue pilot research project.
 
“This initiative will provide the public with access to and understanding of water quality data they can use in a number of important ways,” EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin said. “The information will help people become better stewards of their local waterways and take actions to protect their health by reducing exposure to contaminants.”
 
Using a site on the Jones Falls River in Baltimore, the USGS and EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) are developing low-cost water sensors that will eventually be deployed to gather data on Baltimore Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay.
 
“We see this as more than a set of new scientific instruments,” USGS Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Water Science Center Director Mary Kay Foley said. “It is also a step forward in helping Baltimore meet its goal of a cleaner, healthier, more accessible Inner Harbor. The information we’re gathering will help scientists better understand how to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and it will empower the citizens of Baltimore by giving them real time water quality and hydrologic information about the current status of their historic waterfront.”