National Water Monitoring Day

Summary

NWQMC meeting

December 2002

Year of Clean WaterCelebration…

…30 Years of successes

• Recommitment……To work yet to be completed

• Educate the public on water quality issues.

• Encourage & strengthen partnerships between citizens, private org’s & government agencies.

• Celebrate accomplishments of the CWA

• Identify work that still needs to be done.

Resolutions

• Presidential Year of Clean Water Proclamation

• Joint Congressional Resolution designating 2002 as the Year of Clean Water

• Year of Clean Water Proclamations by Governors of at least 15 States.

• State based educational and celebratory events

NWMD Workgroup

• Chaired by YOCW / ASWIPCA• US EPA • USGS• NWQMC • Washington State Dept Ecology• Pennsylvania DEP• Texas Watch Program • URI Watershed Watch• Oklahoma Water Res. Board • Earthforce• EASI • Earthday Network • California Water Res. Board

Four Tiers of Monitoring spanningOctober 12th to 27th

• Federal agencies

• State agencies

• Volunteer monitoring progs

All target their usual monitoring to that time span,

Using their equipment and methodologies

• Members of the public – YOCW monitoring kit

• Water Temperature

• pH

• Turbidity/Clarity

• Dissolved Oxygen

Kit cost $17.75 - 50 pH, DO testsOrder at: www.yearofcleanwater.org

Registration, Data Entry

• All web based

• www.yearofcleanwater.org(use Internet Explorer)

• Registration required prior to monitoring– Monitor & site info– Helpful to know lat/long– Other planned activities

• Shoreside cleanups• Surveys/Habitat Assessments• Water Festivals

• Database 10/1/02 -12/5/02

4100 Sites Registered*

• 66% (~2700 sites) data/info logged as of 11/15/02

• 80,000 – 85,000 participants, maybe as high as 100,000

• <2% entered supplementary data

* USGS, EASI data not included

Success Measured in Many Ways

• Kansas City – week-long series of events– Involved thousands of folks– Recharged lagging partnerships

• Monterey Bay Sanctuary Fndn– Monitoring coast from Oregon to

Mexico– 2370 folks at 280 sites

• SC – galvanized lake community to monitor “ignored“ lake

• RI – 4 tiers of events– Reception-CWA/30, RIDEM/25,

longtime volunteer monitors honored– Monitoring workshop– Travelling photo exhibit

USGS: Outstanding in the Field

• 67 USGS-related events– 5600 non-USGS attendees– 36 covered by news media

• 28 TV/cable• 6 radio

– 27 had “dignitaries” in attendence

• Response from District Chiefs– 47 positive– 1 negative

Concerns

• Lack of involvement by agencies other than EPA, USGS

• Time of year problematic• Limited parameters• Concerns with the kit• Database difficulties

– Easiest for single site monitoring– No batch entry– Difficulty with locating sites

• Poor map• Lat/long conversions tedious

• Will the data be used?

Next Steps

• Overall summary report (EPA &USGS)– Light on data– Celebrating the event– Key happenings

• Continuing the event– Timing: early Oct, Earth Day?– Monitoring week not day– Engaging more vol mon groups– Improving the kit– Better press coverage (110

clipppings)