A Street View for Rivers Jared Criscuolo wants to go where no videographer has gone before: onto all of America's rivers. Using the same technology harnessed by Google Maps, he is working to document the nation's rivers as well as pollution levels in the water and the surrounding areas - the river equivalent of video street views. A 30-year-old surfer who lives in San Diego, Mr. Criscuolo said he was inspired to take action in 2006 after suffering gastrointestinal problems and a sinus infection that he later realized was probably caused by pollution he encountered during his morning surf session. "You're not supposed to be in the water 72 hours after a rainstorm," he said. "Since it doesn't rain a lot" in San Diego, "there's a massive rush of runoff. What happens is you get oils, animal waste, pesticides. Like many water sports enthusiasts, Mr. Criscuolo did not initially grasp the breadth of the problem. So he set off with a friend and fellow surfer, Kristian Gustavson, to learn more. What began as an annoyance soon turned into a full-time obsession. Then they landed on the idea of producing a street view for rivers. Mr. Criscuolo sent a blind e-mail to the United States Geological Survey in May 2011 and immediately received a response. The survey had been considering a similar idea, and they began working together. With a demo site already online, the team is preparing to begin with the Sacramento River. It hopes to document 27 rivers in the first five years. "Riverview will be used for tracking paddling, fishing and camping routes, and as a policy and environmental protection tool," Mr. Criscuolo said. Fishermen and paddlers will be the two biggest interest groups, but we're getting lots of interest from nonprofits as well. Also in the works is a phone app called Streamview that will allow paddlers to take part in the river documentation project and "creatively gather footage of what they see. We want to start crowd sourcing a library of America's rivers," he said. The project is receiving financial support from the Clif Bar Family Foundation, the Alaskan Brewing Company and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation as well as small grants from the Environmental Protection Agency. The Geological Survey has provided access to its vast network of boats, staff, and scientific data resources. Mr. Criscuolo has also connected with a few people from Google who are advising the Riverview team on how to use the company's mapping tools.