Statewide Monitoring Council

1. StatewideMonitoring Council Utah Division of Water Quality

2. Overview • Background • Other State Examples • Current Projects • Future Direction?

3. Background • National Monitoring Council • Build on Cooperative Monitoring • American Recovery and Reinvestment Act • Start-up grant to fund staff • Data sharing • Capacity building • Training and Funding Opportunities

4. ARRA Work Plan • Review and survey other statewide monitoring councils • Conduct outreach to all agencies and entities • Coordinated Monitoring Council meetings • Coordinate citizen monitoring efforts • Provide support and training for citizen monitors • Assess comparability of DWQ SOPs with other SOPs • Identify future funding sources for the maintenance of the Monitoring Council and financial assistance to citizen monitoring groups

5. Limited Monitoring Resources With Many Waterbodies to Sample !

6. Overview • Background • Other State Examples • Current Projects • Future Direction?

7. Other Volunteer Councils • National Water Quality Monitoring Council • Michigan Clean Water Corps • Tri State Water Quality Council • Montana Watershed Coordination Council • California Water Monitoring Council/California Environmental Data Exchange Network • Many states use volunteer monitoring programs and all have somewhat different approaches to achieve their goals.

8. Case Studies National Water Quality Monitoring Council • Purpose: Provide a national forum for coordination of consistent and scientifically defensible methods and strategies to improve water quality monitoring, assessment and reporting. Promote partnerships to foster collaboration, advance the science, and improve management within all elements of the water quality monitoring community. • Workgroups: Methods and Data Comparability Board, Watershed Information Strategies, Collaboration and Outreach, National Monitoring Network. • Bi-Yearly National Monitoring Conferences • http://acwi.gov/monitoring/

9. What Other States Have Done Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) – Lakes • MiCorps has a easy to navigate website with all the resources needed to get started with monitoring. • The Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program (CLMP) has been an important component of Michigan's inland lakes monitoring program for over 30 years, which makes it the second oldest volunteer monitoring program for lakes in the country. • First year lake communities and volunteer monitors sample for Secchi Disk Transparency, Spring Total Phosphorus and Summer Total Phosphorus and Exotic Aquatic Plant Watch monitoring programs. • After they have demonstrated a proficiency in these programs in following years they may register for chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen/temperature, aquatic plant mapping and any possible pilot program. • Volunteer monitoring groups are randomly selected throughout the year to work side by side with organizers for QA/QC purposes.

10. What Other States Have Done MiCorps – Streams • Volunteer groups must have a monitoring plan and a QAPP before sampling starts. • Volunteer monitoring data has been used to aid biologists in determining if a stream meets it’s attainment requirements or if further assessments need to be done by Michigan DEQ. • Report “The use of Michigan Volunteer Monitoring Data – Benefits and Constraints” details past experiences with the quality of data received from volunteers. • http://www.micorps.net/

11. What Other States Have Done Wisconsin Citizen Based Water Monitoring Network • Citizen-based Water Monitoring Network includes three levels to accommodate the varied interests and time availability of citizens. Everyone initiates participation in Level 1 (except under special circumstances).  • After that, citizens can choose to participate in Level 2 or Level 3 projects. Level 2 offers citizens a more intensive monitoring experience while level 3 offer projects that are defined annually and will have a variety of focuses. • http://watermonitoring.uwex.edu/index.html

12. What Other States Have Done Conclusions • Successful programs have up to date web sites that invite citizens and groups to become actively involved. • Volunteer groups are provided resources to help them understand the monitoring program and give them materials to do so. • These programs realize that there may be limitations to the usability of data provided by volunteer monitors and strive to help them make their data usable. • There are many volunteer monitoring programs out there and they all have different approach's involved in helping fill the gaps in their monitoring needs.

13. Overview • Background • Other State Examples • Current Projects • Future Direction?

14. Cooperative Monitoring • Ongoing work with Federal Partners • Expand Volunteer and Citizen programs • Offer some lab capacity • E. coli

15. E. Coli Monitoring • We are currently analyzing E. coli in-house. • Idexx Colilert process used. • Funds are available to help with purchasing equipment and supplies. • Demonstration of Capability or lab accreditation needed. • Follow DWQ SOP for field analysis of E.coli.

16. Westminster College • Second semester of monitoring • Follows SOP written by DWQ • E. coli, Flow, pH, D.O. • Supplies provided by DWQ

17. E Coli Workgroup • Coordinating with LHD, State Parks, NPS • Identify Roles and Responsibilities • Closures, public notices • Safety of Recreational Waters

18. Web Page and ListServ

19. Overview • Background • Other State Examples • Current Projects • Future Direction?

20. Direction of Monitoring Council • What do participants want to derive from their coordination? • Function based on data needs. • What technical assistance is required? • Data Quality Measures will need to be defined. • Future QA/QC Workgroup? • E. coli Workgroup: Look at this issue in your area. • Funding sources? • Future meetings? • Presentations and agendas? • Parking lot – discuss needs. • Just Remember:

21. When There’s A Will, There’s A Way and