If you are a stickler for following water quality issues in your area, you might be interested in downloading the new Android and iOS app developed by Pontchartrain Conservancy, which has been working to preserve Lake Pontchartrain for more than 30 years.
True to its mission of protecting the environment, the Pontchartrain Conservancy, formally known as the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, has developed the Lake&Coast app to provide the sampling results of their organization's weekly water quality tests directly to the public. Pontchartrain Conservancy has worked diligently since 1989 to restore Lake Pontchartrain as a healthy resource for the region. In 2006, Lake Pontchartrain became the largest body of water to ever be removed from the Environmental Protection Agency's impaired water bodies list and was officially declared clean and safe.
Now with the touch of a button, "citizens can make more informed decisions when it comes to swimming or boating and to have greater insight into the status of areas throughout the basin," Water Quality Program Director Brady Skaggs said. With the app, users will have access to water quality results for 12 recreational sites around the Lake Pontchartrain Basin, both on the Northshore and the Southshore. Weekly data will provide additional details from bacteria indicators, salinity, water temperature, and visibility to updates for issued sites, warnings, recent rainfall, runoff, and directions to the locations.
In celebration of the launch of the Lake&Coast app, the Pontchartrain Conservancy is hosting a photography contest. Contestants are asked to submit limitless night and daytime photographs of at least one testing site to waterquality@scienceforourcoast.org by July 16 at 11:59 p.m. Winners will be selected on July 23 and will be receive credit and be featured in the app.
Visit scienceforourcoast.org for more information about the app
and contest rules. The app will be released to the public through app stores in
conjunction with the celebration
of National Water Quality Month in August.
