About the Network

The New Jersey Watershed Watch Network is a support provider for all community-based and volunteer water quality monitoring programs across the state. A program with the same name had existed in New Jersey prior to 2012 and is being reinstated to offer additional support for community monitoring groups to develop, grow, and thrive. NJDEP contracted with The Watershed Institute in July 2018 for an initial three-year period to manage this support program on their behalf.

Partnerships and information sharing are vital to the continued success of the New Jersey volunteer monitoring community. In recent gaps and needs assessments by the New Jersey Water Quality Monitoring Council, volunteer monitoring coordinators stated that they need more guidance, more technical resources, and more opportunities for regular interaction with NJDEP. The NJ Watershed Watch Network serves as a clearinghouse of New Jersey-specific water monitoring information, and helps to link together the needs of NJDEP with those of the volunteer community. The Network offers an open line of communication to allow for a freer exchange of information and improved data quality.

Volunteer monitoring groups are a valuable resource, the capacities of which can be leveraged to increase the availability of data for regulatory uses. The NJ Watershed Watch Network unifies volunteer groups under a consistent set of methods that will produce data of sufficient quality to be used for regulatory purposes. A set of protocols and quality assurance project plan (QAPP) templates will be developed under the guidance of the Office of Quality Assurance, and will be made available to standardize methodology across different groups.

We provide:
  • Volunteer training
  • Workshops and networking meetings for program coordinators
  • A clearinghouse for NJ-specific monitoring materials
  • Study design and quality assurance review
  • Assistance with technical issues including data entry into the EPA’s Water Quality Exchange
  • Connection between community organizations and data users at the NJDEP and EPA

Network Objectives

  • High Quality Data

    Provide technical resources for community monitoring groups to continue improving data quality, thereby increasing the quantity of data made available for assessments made by the Integrated Report.

  • Comprehensive Data

    Build capacity for new monitoring programs in underrepresented parts of the state, filling gaps and expanding the range of comprehensively assessed HUC-14s.

  • Consistent Data

    Foster open inter-organizational communication to develop and maintain cohesive monitoring protocols and methods, making the pathway for data use more straightforward and transparent.

  • Reliable Data

    Leverage statewide resources to improve sustainability of volunteer monitoring programs to continue long-term.

Who We Are

Are you conducting water quality monitoring in New Jersey? Let us know!

Where We Work

There are hundreds of sites across New Jersey that are consistently monitored by community organizations. 

Please share your monitoring station information with us to add to our network map. Click the button to complete the form.

What We Do

Partnering for Healthy Streams with Sourland Conservancy

Recorded Webinar from The Watershed Institute and Land Trust Network

This webinar held on May 11, 2020 provides an introduction to the NJ Watershed Watch Network and the resources it provides to New Jersey Community Water Monitoring Groups. After a review of the three-tiered data quality framework and the required quality assurance/quality control measures that groups must undergo to reach the highest level of Tier 3 regulatory data, Carolyn Klaube, from the Sourland Conservancy, shares her perspective of beginning their own macroinvertebrate and habitat monitoring program under these strict guidelines. It is doable!

We want to hear from you!

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