While we await innovations in monitoring, new directions in water quality improvement are being pioneered by cooperative efforts at the state and local level. Several case studies suggest that the typical method of regulating point sources is obsolete, and that breakthroughs in water quality improvement will involve creative, voluntary measures crafted at the local level. These case studies show how businesses, farmers, environmental groups, scientists, and concerned citizens have joined together to assess and improve water quality on their own. We will examine two below.