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Miami Waterkeeper: How to protect our waterways   

Founded in 2010, Miami Waterkeeper has become an influential advocate for marine ecosystems, clean water, and a resilient South Florida. MWK’s founders recognized the need for a locally-based nonprofit to help organize community members and to be the spokesperson in the fight for clean water in Miami. Through our combination of community outreach and education, scientific research, and legal action, we have made significant progress in improving our waterways, protecting our ecosystems, and planning for sea level rise. MWK recognizes the critical link between clean water and healthy communities and is committed to empowering citizens to lead a grassroots movement to protect our environment, economy, and quality of life. Recognizing that policy and decision-making processes are often highly complex, we translate these processes into actionable opportunities for everyday citizens, providing them with the science and information necessary for them to make their voices heard.

Miami Waterkeeper has been pushing for a number of critically necessary measures that could reduce sewage leaks, improve water quality, mitigate marine habitat destruction, and protect Miami’s residents, its wildlife, and its coastlines, including but not limited to:

• Inspections and maintenance of wastewater infrastructure, including underwater pipes in Biscayne Bay and offshore. (We uncovered a leak in one of these pipes in 2016 that that County had ignored for over a year.)
• Comprehensive testing of stormwater outfalls and better testing of Biscayne Bay and our beaches
• Enforcement of illicit leaks in the stormwater system
• Sustainable water supply for use in recharging wetlands and decreasing the salinity of Biscayne Bay.
• Enforcement of water quality standards around the Turkey Point power plant and the decommissioning of the cooling canal system that is polluting the aquifer and the Bay 
• Protection of the aquifer and wellfields
• Eliminating septic tanks, especially near waterways
• Increased funding for the Healthy Beaches program, more testing, more investigations of water quality failures, and better public dissemination of information
• To improve resiliency of wastewater and drinking water and energy infrastructure
• To improve natural habitats and to protect and restore mangroves, seagrasses, wetlands, and corals

Swim Guide

Swim Guide is a Waterkeeper app designed to collect water quality data from around the world and to allow users to quickly and easily find out whether the waters around
them are clean and safe. Currently, the app has over 4000 users in the Miami-Dade area, and provides information in a free and easy- to- read “stoplight” format, with green indicating good water quality and red indicating poor water quality. The Swim Guide application is available on both the web and mobile devices.

Water Patrol

Miami Waterkeeper’s Water Patrol is a volunteer-based program designed to increase Miami Waterkeeper’s ability to monitor Biscayne Bay and waterways of South Florida and to increase the visibility of water quality issues in the community. Members of this citizen-led program monitor and document water quality and habitat conditions and report problems that are encountered while on or near the water. Learn more about how you can get involved with this effort at www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/water_patrol

Water Quality Monitoring

Miami Waterkeeper is implementing a water quality monitoring program for Biscayne Bay that seeks to address gaps in state monitoring of bacteria. Miami Waterkeeper is testing sites around the Bay on a weekly basis for the presence of sewage-related enterococci by collecting samples and analyzing them with the help of students. The results of our analyses will be made public on Miami Waterkeeper’s Swim Guide mobile app, which provides the public with free, real-time water quality information. 

Membership

Join us! By becoming a member of Miami Waterkeeper, you support our work to provide swimmable, drinkable, fishable water to South Florida.  Your membership also gives us the ability to defend your interests in court – allowing us to hold polluters accountable and defend our watershed. Members also enjoy added benefits such as merchandise discounts, access to special content, invitations to exclusive events, and more! Become a member today by visiting www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/become_a_member