{"id":842592,"date":"2026-06-04T00:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/842592\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:12:15","slug":"say-hello-to-bob-the-newest-way-to-monitor-pollution-in-dc-area-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/842592\/","title":{"rendered":"Say hello to \u2018Bob,\u2019 the newest way to monitor pollution in DC-area rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new dashboard launched Wednesday will let anyone monitor the water condition and quality in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers in real time.<\/p>\n

Several buoys have been deployed in the Potomac, Anacostia and Shenandoah rivers that will capture important data on water quality and upload it to the internet.<\/p>\n

That might sound routine, but a new dashboard launched Wednesday will let anyone monitor the water condition and quality in real time.<\/p>\n

The Reservoir Center for Water Solutions in the Navy Yard helped create the dashboard<\/a>, which allows users to log onto their computer or mobile device and access data uploaded from the floating monitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to monitor the quality of our water is a really important thing for us to do because we know it is fragile,\u201d said D.C. Council Member Charles Allen, of Ward 6.<\/p>\n

Allen pointed to the disastrous sewage spill in the Anacostia River<\/a> Jan. 19 as a reason why quick access to data is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the person who\u2019s just trying to figure out, \u2018Can I go sailing today? Can I go jump on a paddleboard, can I get in a kayak or canoe and get out on the water? Can I go fishing today?\u2019 It\u2019s really accessible information,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

The company Xylem Water Solutions donated several \u201cBobs,\u201d named that because they look like yellow and white fishing bobbers, according to the initiative.<\/p>\n

They will be monitored and maintained by several local water quality advocacy groups which partnered with Reservoir Center on the program: the Anacostia Watershed Society<\/a>, the Anacostia Riverkeeper<\/a> and the Potomac Riverkeeper Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A buoy designed to monitor water quality floats in a local river.
\n(WTOP\/Alan Etter) <\/p>\n

\n WTOP\/Alan Etter <\/p>\n

\"demonstration<\/p>\n

Data including water temperature, salinity, turbidity (cloudiness) and other pollution measures will be uploaded from the Bob to the internet, where it can be accessed by anyone.
\n(WTOP\/Alan Etter) <\/p>\n

\n WTOP\/Alan Etter <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"demonstration<\/p>\n

\nData including water temperature, salinity, turbidity (cloudiness) and other pollution measures will be uploaded from the Bob to the internet. The data will also be saved so experts can track any changes in the information over time.<\/p>\n

Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, who grew up on the Potomac River, had high praise for the innovation and said it will be a key tool in monitoring the health of the rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole notion of being able to report on a daily basis \u2014 an hourly basis \u2014 what\u2019s happening in the river makes an enormous difference,\u201d Beyer said.<\/p>\n

The real-time data is available at water-quality.reservoircenter.org<\/a>. Once there, you click on \u201cview map\u201d and select the buoy of your choice.<\/p>\n

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new dashboard launched Wednesday will let anyone monitor the water condition and quality in the Potomac and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":842593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[81100,344877,746,243040,159,67,132,68,12987],"class_list":["post-842592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-navy-yard","tag-anacostia-river","tag-environment","tag-potomac-river","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-water-quality"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116688948267383192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}