An NCCOS-sponsored scientist partnered with a Long Island television station to create a public water quality index that keeps citizens informed of local water conditions.
The online, interactive index provides weekly reports on six water quality parameters — dissolved oxygen, water clarity, temperature, chlorophyll, fecal bacteria, and harmful algal blooms (HABs) — in more than 25 water bodies in and around Long Island. Each water body is given a composite score from one to three (1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = good).
To help communicate the results, local television station News 12 Long Island broadcasts the index results on Thursdays and Fridays during the summer and posts the index on their website. The index is not an official record of water quality and does not supersede official government water and shellfish quality monitoring, reporting, and warnings.
The index was created by Dr. Christopher Gobler, a professor at Stony Brook University and an NCCOS-sponsored principal investigator. The index is an outgrowth of NCCOS ECOHAB and MERHAB projects led by Dr. Gobler.
For more information, contact Marc.Suddleson@noaa.gov.