Monitoring water quality only helps if people can see the results. With Upper Potomac Riverkeeper and the Hood College lab, WaterWatch now puts three years of Town Run sampling on one public, interactive map.
Town Run flows through Shepherdstown and Morgan’s Grove Park, and plenty of people live, walk, and play beside it. People have been sampling the stream for years, but until now there was no easy way for the public to see the results.
That changes today. The Town Run Water Quality map is the newest project built on WaterWatch, The Downstream Project’s platform for collecting, managing, and sharing water quality data. Explore it at Town Run Water Quality.
What you’ll find on the map
- Nine monitoring stations along Town Run and its tributary, each with photos and a full history of results.
- E. coli and other readings from 2024 through 2026. Dots turn green when a result meets the E. coli standard and red when it exceeds it, so problem spots stand out at a glance.
- DNA source tracking. At six stations, lab DNA testing estimates which animals the bacteria came from, which shows where pollution may be starting.
- Stream flow from USGS gauges on nearby Rockymarsh Run and the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, so you can see whether a sample was taken after rain or during low water.
- Station-by-station and side-by-side charts that show how results change over time.
- Plain-language explanations of what each test measures and why it matters.
The map updates automatically every day from the project’s database, so new results appear soon after they are entered.
Why it matters
Monitoring water quality helps keep streams safe. But data alone won’t drive action if the right people can’t see or understand it. By putting Town Run’s results in one clear, public place, we hope to help residents, families, and local decision makers understand how the stream is doing and where it needs attention.
Our partners
This project is a partnership among the Town Run Watershed (Greg Welter), the Upper Potomac Riverkeeper (Brent Walls), the Hood College lab, and The Downstream Project. Thank you to everyone whose work in the field and the lab made this map possible.
