Personal Narrative: My Internship With The Coosa River

While interning with Coosa River with the small amount of time I had, I learned a couple of new things. I learned why citizens want to protect their rivers so bad, learned how to test water while receiving my certification for it, and I also learned the ways of the non-profit world. Justin Overton, the executive director and Frank Chitwood, the river keeper both mad my stay worthwhile. Justin’s job is ensuring that the organization has the resources needed to fight for swimmable, drinkable, and fishable water. She also coordinates many other aspects of the organization such as membership, capacity building, special events, and outreach. Franks job is to monitors water quality, patrols the river, responds to citizen complaints of pollution, and conducts research. My big project with the Coosa River is producing a map for the users of the river, covering the facilities, quality of fish, recreation and use of resources on the river. This map will be called the Fish Guide, this map will also help you find marinas, bait shops, and boat ramps. This map will be
polished and created to be an app for phone users. With technology today most will have access to this app, making it reliable and useful while there on the river. However, for those who do not have access to the app, the Coosa River Organization will keep fighting to put signs up and keep polluters away.
Before my internship with the Coosa River, I was struggling to get an internship.
I was supposed to start in the beginning of February but did not start until late March, which set me back from the other students. Dr.Holt told me I would be interning with Alabama Rivers Alliance, I was astonished, considering that this is a big organization to me I could not believe it. Opportunities like this I thought I would never get. Interning with them and attending the conference in mobile will expand my network, knowledge and gives me a better chance in getting a good job. With Alabama Rivers I expect to do a lot of office work, physical work, and learn policies I have no clue about. I also expect the environment to be friendly and energetic but yet filled with problems to solve. Unfortunately I did not get to experience none of my assumptions because there communication was terrible and was too busy for an
intern.
Till this day im still not sure in what I want to be nor if im headed in the right direction but I trust that Dr.Holt will get me to where I need to be. At this point I just want to become a well-rounded environmentalist so when graduation is near I’ll have options to choose from. My freshmen year I had plans on being a geologist but after talking to Dr.Holt about internships, my mind is slowly changed but yet I do think about it from time to time now since I’ve took UES 160. Another internship that we talk about was with NASA, which really broaden my ideas in what jobs I would pursue. With this internship and NASA being on my resume, I believe it will get me a job immediately after I graduate.
The backup internship we tried after Alabama Rivers Alliance was Cahaba River which did not work out to well either. The problem that I faced with them was the same issue with Alabama Rivers Alliance but instead they fed me promises which is worse. A meeting with Latnaya Scott and Adam Johnston was supposed to be set but Adam emailed me February 11th, telling me that he cannot promise me a positon. According to Adam, he is not for sure if he can get me an internship but is willing to help look for another. Frustrated, I took myself up to Cahaba River and met with Latanya Scott myself. Surprisingly we actually had a great talk but still I didn’t end up interning with them.
For the last week of March, Holt finally found me an internship by the grace of god. With Coosa River Keeper we’ve came up with a plan of what I will be doing for the next two months. Which is, water quality sampling and working through a fish guide with Coosa’s River Keeper Frank. With water quality sampling the goal of the project is to inform local residents or people that use the river with information about water quality conditions at popular recreation sites on the river. The database were building consists of a baseline of water quality conditions that can be tracked over time to analyze trends. A map of water quality and eatable fish will be on the Coosa River Keeper website and mobile app for those who need and want the information. While conducting water quality samples, Frank will guide me teach me the ways of a water keeper. If problems in areas are spotted through the Coosa River, then we can focus in on those areas and pursue restoration. The results of the samples only represent a small portion of the water. River conditions fluctuate on a daily basis and they change drastically during rain or pollution incidents. Usually the results do not change a lot week to week. However, if it rains after we collect a sample, river conditions will change.
Going through the fish guide is kind of similar but different. Me and other interns will go out once a week and take samples for E.coli. From the same map I wrote about earlier it will also consist of contaminated fish, boat ramps, how big docks are, bait shops and public parks. Fish consumption advisories will also be informed to users of the Coosa River. The fish guide also measures mercury in fish, pcb, environmental injustice and a survey guide. There are 26 fish consumption advisories on the River as a result of PCB and mercury contamination. Though it is not illegal to eat fish from areas with advisories, it is highly discouraged. After we touched up on what I would be doing for the next two months, Justin wanted me to volunteer for the Air Wave Event the upcoming Saturday. This event was a fundraiser for the Coosa River, Black Warrior River and the Cahaba River. My objective was to engage on coming people and ask for five dollar donations while giving them raffle tickets and free bottles of soap.