Press Release EPA Grant Awarded to Launch Bay Guardians Water Quality Initiative
*For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
St. Andrew and St. Joseph Bays Estuary Program
Aleighsa Wright – Outreach Specialist
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (850) 770-2198
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St. Andrew and St. Joseph Bays Awarded Nearly $750,000 EPA Grant to Launch “Bay Guardians” Water Quality Initiative
PANAMA CITY, FL — December 2025 — The St. Andrew and St. Joseph Bays Estuary Program (SASJBEP) has been awarded a $749,998 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The funding will launch “Bay Guardians: Citizen Science for Clean Waters,” a comprehensive three-year initiative designed to expand water quality monitoring and increase public awareness across the St. Andrew and St. Joseph Bays.
The “Bay Guardians” project addresses a need for consistent, widespread data on the health of the St. Andrew-Joe Bay Watershed’s waterways. By utilizing community involvement, the program aims to protect the aquatic systems that drive the local economy, tourism, and biodiversity.
The grant will support the creation and expansion of two citizen-based monitoring programs. In St. Andrew Bay, the project will bolster the long-standing efforts of St. Andrew Bay Watc h with a dedicated effort to recruit and coordinate volunteers across the Bay. The SASJBEP will add 5-10 new monitoring stations in St. Andrew Bay, specifically upstream in the bayous, to evaluate the existing water quality monitoring stations. This targeted approach will help assess the ideal location for future stations, ensuring consistent monitoring and accurate representation of bay water quality.
In St. Joseph Bay, a brand-new citizen science monitoring program will be established, partnering with local charter captains and residents who will be trained and equipped to monitor water quality. In total, the program targets monitoring at a minimum of 80 stations across both bays for 2.5-3 years, tracking vital physical parameters (such as temperature, pH, salinity, and dissolved oxygen) and nutrient levels looking at total nitrogen and total phosphorus.
This grant will also support the creation of a public Online Water Quality Dashboard. This new dashboard will compile data from the Bay Guardians project, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), and St. Andrew Bay Watch into a user-friendly, interactive platform. This tool will allow residents, local officials, and researchers to view up-to-date assessments of the bays’ conditions and recommend management actions.
Bay Guardians will give us the opportunity to support citizen science efforts in both Bays while also filling in important gaps of information while ensuring we can continue to understand water quality conditions when funding is limited.”
– Dr. Jessica Graham, Executive Director of the St. Andrew and St. Joseph Bays Estuary Program
About St. Andrew and St. Joseph Bays Estuary Program (SASJBEP):
Our Vision:
Healthy, resilient bays and estuarine habitats that support native species, natural systems, recreation, fisheries and the economy, together with vibrant, resilient, and sustainable communities in the watershed that live in harmony with the needs of the estuary.
Our Mission:
To collaborate—as representatives of private, public, and non-governmental stakeholders—to improve our common sense, science-based understanding of the needs of the estuary, and to develop, promote and implement projects that protect and restore the health of the bays.
Estuary Program Field Technician using YSI to take water quality samples at FSU Panama City.
