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Council showcases redesigned mywaterquality.c.gov and work‑group portals; members ask for equity and data access improvements
Summary
The council previewed a substantial redesign of mywaterquality.c.gov, bringing easier access to work‑group pages, Harmful Algal Bloom reporting, Safe to Swim maps and drinking‑water resources. Members asked for follow‑up on equity, language access and open data pipelines to improve timeliness and public usability.
The council dedicated a major portion of its meeting to a walkthrough of the updated mywaterquality.c.gov site and individual work‑group portals.
Anna (web lead) and Marissa Van Dyke, manager of the Freshwater and Estuarine Harmful Algal Bloom program, showed a cleaner layout with work‑group pages, a prominent “report a harmful algal bloom” button, and mobile‑optimized navigation. Eric (Safe to Swim cochair) and others praised easier access to maps, dashboards and meeting materials that had been previously buried on older pages.
Why this matters: speakers said improved navigation and standardized pages should make it simpler for the public and practitioners to find monitoring results, report events and access resources. Several participants noted search engines will better index the new structure.
Outstanding issues: multiple speakers urged more work to make content accessible and equitable. Peter Froome and other members proposed a council‑level discussion and equity‑workgroup guidance to de‑jargonize pages, add translations and prioritize key resources for Spanish and other language speakers. Evelyn and Christine (drinking water work group proponents) said the “safe to drink” content is improved but still far from the level needed to answer the public’s basic question: “Is my water safe to drink?” Participants recommended additional resources, clearer guidance and stronger links to public water system reporting.
Data pipeline and timeliness concerns: several members, including Greg Gerhardt and Brian Lawrence, raised the need to link maps and dashboards to open, automated data endpoints so that lab and field results are discoverable and, when appropriate, available more quickly for emergency response. Members discussed the challenges of heterogeneous data sources and the need for standard open data publications for tools such as the SWAMP dashboard and Safe to Swim maps.
Ending: Web support requested work‑group chairs to submit corrections and content updates to mywaterquality@waterboard.ca.gov; staff said web team would prioritize requests over the next month.
