WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — There’s a new dashboard where you can check the water quality for our local rivers.

While you can’t swim in the Potomac, Anacostia or Shenandoah, nonprofits behind the data hope the information will help better guide families, local leaders, and lawmakers.

The sensors in the water showed the quality of the Anacostia was good on Wednesday, sitting at 70 degrees. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect — DC News Now crews saw plenty of trash floating around.

The Anacostia River often gets a bad rap, but there are ongoing efforts to change the conversation.

“For the first time literally in half a century, it’s actually feasible and reasonable to talk about swimming,” said Anacostia Riverkeeper Trey Sherard.

To get to that point, water quality data is critical.

The new dashboard provides real-time data, including temperature, chloride levels, fluorescent dissolved organic material, turbidity, pH and dissolved oxygen.

“Temperature is what I’m guessing most average users are going to be checking. They want to see the thermometer,” Sherard said. “A lot of other people, ecology in particular, will be interested in the chlorophyll or in the dissolved oxygen.”

For people who fish, bigger fish need more oxygen.

For Liz Saccoccia, the data will help her when sailing.

“Having real-time information on the quality of the river is so important to know, you know, if there’s health risks of falling in or… capsizing,” Saccoccia said.

The program is a partnership between the Reservoir Center, Anacostia Riverkeeper, Anacostia Watershed Society and Potomac Riverkeeper Network.

Sherard says the data is not fully quality-controlled but it’s a good alarm system. 

“If we see something going deep into the red somewhere on one of these SONS, for whatever parameter it is, we can alert the agencies both in the District and, depending on the site, maybe even up in Maryland…to say, hey, you need to get an inspector out to this region,” said Sherard.

There are nine sensor stations between the Anacostia, Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.

The goal is to work together to restore the health of D.C.’s rivers.