About Me

Hi, I'm Charlotte Clarke, your new friendly neighborhood Water Monitoring Methods Fellow! I live in New Orleans and am excited to join the Public Lab team through December 2019. I also serve as the Deputy Director of lowernine.org, a residential construction nonprofit that uses volunteer labor to rebuild and repair houses for pre-Katrina residents of the Lower Ninth Ward. I am originally from Massachusetts, and graduated with a degree in environmental engineering. I'm intrigued by the intersection of environmental justice issues and technical/scientific/pragmatic solutions. I can be reached through this website or at charlotte@lowernine.org

What We're Doing

This Monitoring Methods Fellowship is part of the Oil & Gas Water Fellows Trio and is an opportunity to research and document water monitoring methods used by people to collect evidence on the environmental impacts of the oil & gas industry. I'll be specifically focusing on:

• Researching and posting documentation on Public Lab on methods used by watershed groups, watchdog groups, states, universities, and individuals to organize and advocate for improvements on water quality issues in areas affected by the oil & gas industry.
• Connecting with individuals who do this type of monitoring, conduct interviews, and document their stories and experiences related to this work on PublicLab.org.
• Collaborating with the Hardware and Community Fellows (Will and Rollin, respectively) to draft and compile materials for a "Research Area Review" on water quality monitoring on PublicLab.org.

I'd Love Your Help!

• Will's already gotten a great start with introducing some questions that are central to our research and roles as fellows: Why do individuals/organizations want to collect water quality data? And How can DIY/community-collected environmental data be used? We'll be posting more questions throughout the fellowship, so follow the water-quality and oil-and-gas tags to keep up with the discussions!
• I am currently aggregating sources related to oil & gas water monitoring... Scientific papers, websites for community organizations, books, user manuals all welcome! Send 'em my way. Comment 'em here. I'll be organizing and summarizing these sources throughout the fellowship.
• Please connect with me if you or someone you know has done oil & gas water monitoring: I am looking for folks to survey and/or interview so we can better share our experiences and challenges in the field.
• Let me know how I can help you! I am in this role to support and improve the work of people in oil & gas water monitoring: I hope to respond to the expressed needs of teams doing this work.
• If you're in New Orleans or the Gulf Coast, keep an eye out for an upcoming event or two related to this Fellowship! We'll be getting together and getting our hands dirty soon.