The Community-Assisted Monitoring Program (CAMP) is a partnership to collect and analyze scientifically valid water-quality data from lakes in the seven-county Twin Cities area. Organizations and residents use the data to make better decisions about lake management.
Under CAMP, sponsor organizations recruit volunteers to track water quality in local lakes. Sponsor organizations include counties, cities, watershed districts, and other local governments.
Each volunteer monitors a specific site on a lake on a regular basis from mid-April through mid-October (every two weeks is most common). Volunteers collect a surface water sample, measure water temperature and clarity, and report weather and lake conditions.
With help from their sponsors, volunteers provide the data and samples to Metropolitan Council Environmental Services. We analyze the samples, review and analyze data, assess and report on current lake conditions, and manage the CAMP program.
CAMP is part of the Met Council’s lake monitoring and assessment program.
Benefits to your organization
The Met Council and our partner organizations rely on this long-term water quality data to inform and document progress on local and regional water management plans. Enlisting residents to monitor water quality has many benefits.
- Volunteers are a cost-effective way to obtain scientifically valid data and build long-term water quality data sets. For example, these data can help your organization:
- Document whether water quality is improving, degrading or staying the same over time.
- Assess “before” and “after” lake water quality conditions in response to watershed best management practices and lake management projects.
- Evaluate if a lake is meeting state eutrophication water quality standards, which is important if your organization is involved with the various phases of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process for a lake.
- Good data helps your organization make lake and watershed management decisions with more confidence given limited resources.
- Volunteers become more aware of lake conditions, leading them to understand and support the lake protection and management activities of your organization.
- Volunteers may become advocates for your organization’s broader efforts by:
- Effectively communicating with their local government representatives as better-informed residents.
- Spreading the word of their work and your organization’s efforts to their neighbors and social networks.
- Council-produced lake reports make it easier for your organization to communicate with residents about local water quality.
Responsibilities of CAMP partners
Governmental organizations (called sponsors), volunteers and the Met Council each have specific responsibilities in the collaboration.