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Monica Rivera is a high school sophomore who can reel off a list of water testing chemicals as if it were a lunch menu. In her capacity as a Riverwatch mentor, Monica has been interviewed by Channel 7 News, has spoken before the Austin City Council and to the parents of Austin Youth Riverwatch participants. She is also training younger students in the program. Photo: Texas Environmental Center

Monica gathering water samples, with a testing kit in background. She wears rubber gloves to prevent sample contamination. Photo: Texas Environmental Center

Monica Rivera was in eighth grade at Mendez Middle School when she got interested in water quality monitoring. "I saw a [water-test] demonstration by a couple of seventh graders at the Be Somebody Fair in Austin one day, I said 'That looks interesting.' I didn't know anything about chemicals then." She then signed up for the Austin Youth Riverwatch Program, part of the Colorado Riverwatch Foundation.

The Austin Youth Riverwatch Program focuses on youth-at-risk (students in danger of dropping out of high school). "At-risk" students are paired with honor roll students who become their mentors. Founded in 1992, this program involves 76 students from six different schools. "Sometimes people look at the program and think it's never going to work: a bunch of kids from different schools, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, but you start talking to people who you normally wouldn't talk to just because they are in the program. And then you see them at school and it's like, 'Oh hi!' That's happened to me a lot."

Monica points out that this program gets kids off the street and gives them a chance to see what being a scientist is really like. After becoming Riverwatchers, participants often experience a change of attitude and even behavior. "I'd see people throw trash on the ground and I'd ask them 'Where is that going to end up?' They said 'Oh yeah, in the creek,' and then they'd go and pick it up. Sometimes when I'm with my friends, I see some trash and I say 'Wait a minute while I go pick this up.' They laugh."

Monica and her group monitor Williamson Creek in East Austin. Their group tests groundwater, both for chemicals as well as insects. "In Williamson Creek we found four leeches in our water sample--which is quite a lot for being in a creek. That means it's clean, but it could be cleaner. The kinds of insects you find gives you an idea of how clean the water is," Monica says.

Water quality data gathered by groups like Monica's is turned over to the City of Austin's Water and Wastewater Department. Monica says that when a high level of nitrates appears in water, it could mean a cracked sewer line. Student groups have been awarded numerous citations from the City of Austin for identifying and reporting sewer leaks, oil leaks and other potentially dangerous situations.

"I used to want to be a lawyer," Monica says when asked about her future. "But now I want to do something with the environment." Her enthusiasm for her work is palpable. "I was sitting down at home with a tube of water. It was smelly and stinky. The water was all green and black. My sisters and one boyfriend stood around me: 'What are you doing? That's so gross.' But I found so much stuff. I have about 20 vials in my room, full of little insects I found, and I'm going to name all of them. I think it's fun."

What students like Monica are doing is certainly fun, but these students are not just playing around. Student water quality monitors in Austin led a phosphate ban that was approved by the Austin City Council and was eventually extended to many cities along the Colorado River. Recently Austin student monitors traveled to the Russia to learn about the Volga river and to teach water quality monitoring procedures to Russian students. With its impressive record, the Austin Youth Riverwatch and programs like it are spawning the new generation of environmental professionals.

This story is made possible in part through support from
The National Environmental Education Training Foundation.

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