Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of 200 water protection groups worldwide, has just issued a smart Swim Guide smart phone app for New York, Connecticut, Massachussetts and the Chesapeake Region.
It’s FREE, and available for both iPhone and Android phones, to download from the iTunes store and Google Play.
It’s also available via The Swim Guide website, but without the GPS component.
The app was launched to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act earlier this week. The information id provided and managed by member groups within the Waterkeeper Alliance, and especially helpful after a big storm, when ugly, potentially harmful things can get churned up.
The Swim Guide utilizes water quality monitoring data from government authorities to determine the water quality at nearly 2,500 beaches in the United States, and is updated as frequently as water quality information is gathered.
The app originated with a team from the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper chapter, which set out to determine if it was safe to swim in Lake Ontario. Seven years later, with input from more than 100 beach monitoring sources covering more than 1,300 beaches a day and more than 128,000 points of data, you can check the status and cleanliness of local beaches in real time.
In addition to the New York and neighboring locations launched this week, today, the Swim Guide includes descriptions and photographs of nearly 2,500 beaches in California, Miami, Mobile, Charleston, the Great Lakes, British Columbia and Alberta. Swim Guide will continue to expand until it covers beaches in every major beach community in North America.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.