Excellence in Government Award Winner: Department of Environmental Quality

The Community Science Program earned the inaugural Excellence in Government Award as part of the Governor’s Office success recognition program on January 27, 2025. 

In 2017, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality launched the Community Science Program to empower communities and better monitor the state’s 114,000 square miles of land and waterways. The program trains community scientists all over the state–including retirees, students and many others–to collect water, air and soil samples that provide public health data.

“What we are trying to get to is safe water, clean air and healthy land for everyone. Arizonans care about the communities they live in, so the Arizona Community Science Alliance Program allows them to get involved with how we at ADEQ protect public health and the environment in Arizona,” said ADEQ Deputy Director Karen Peters.

The volunteers work with Community Science and Education Coordinator Meghan Smart to do everything from collecting water quality samples, air quality data, wet-dry mapping and even trash cleanups.

“All of this data really helps us fix problems once they’re found,” said Smart.

The program has facilitated the cleanup of over 70,000 tons of contaminated material from Arizona’s surface waters and land; Eight water bodies have been removed from the impaired surface water list as a result of the work that these volunteers have helped ADEQ conduct. 

The Arizona Water Dogs and students at Grand Canyon University are among the community scientists who have together uploaded 47,000 total water records.

Lorley Eastburn and Burt Eastburn volunteer for the program as the Arizona Water Dogs. Lorley said they call themselves the Water Dogs because they’ve had dogs for years and have always brought them out to Arizona rivers. 

“I was reading the news one day and the title was ‘would you like to be a citizen scientist doing water samples?’” said Lorley Eastburn. “And I told Burt, you’re out there Monday, Wednesday and Friday as it is… so I said why don’t you do this?” 

The couple now have 52 sites where they collect samples and conduct E.coli tests, which Smart says is the number one impairment in the state. Because there are so many possible sources of E.coli, it’s hard to pinpoint. 

“The volunteers [are] like an army of people who care. And they’ve been trained to collect critical data,” Smart said. 

Students from Grand Canyon University are also among the Community Science Program’s volunteers. As part of a class, students test for total coliforms (a group of bacteria that can indicate contamination with fecal matter) and E.coli. 

Kyleigh Howell, a junior at GCU studying environmental science, said the class has seen water quality improve since they began testing.  

“We’ve seen a lot of different progressions in the water quality since I’ve started. I’ve seen a lot of improvements in the lower Salt River specifically in our E.coli levels over the past year,” she said. “This is a community we all live in and we all care about, so seeing how the changes are improving the community for the people around us is really amazing.”

Elijah Hawkins, a senior at GCU studying environmental science, noted that the class’s testing sites tend to be upstream of agricultural areas to ensure that produce and drinking water aren’t contaminated. Students are getting hands-on experience in gathering data that can protect communities. 

“I believe it starts right here in our own individual communities, and so participating in that is essential to getting toward a larger goal of what we want for our state, our cities and our country,” he said.

The Community Science Program is among the first of its kind for regulatory agencies in the nation. It has facilitated the collection of thousands of credible environmental data records to safeguard our environment and enhance our understanding of environmental health. 

It’s a professional honor for program coordinator Smart, but it’s also a personal one.

“I love this program because I get to work with amazing people,” she said. “They’re not just people. They’re not just volunteers. You’ve established a relationship with these people and the community. And they have taught us about the communities in which they live; their regular Arizona daily life—and the partnership and finding solutions together is my joy.”

If you are interested in learning more or volunteering for the program, visit the ADEQ website.