Prepared by Steve Hanson

ODEQ Volunteer Monitoring Specialist

5/26/04

DEQ’s Volunteer Monitoring Program

in the Coastal ESU

The DEQ works to involve Oregonians in identifying and solving the state’s water quality problems. Since 1997, the agency has supported volunteer water quality monitoring efforts through a funded volunteer monitoring specialist position dedicated to providing technical assistance to groups. The volunteer monitoring specialist assists groups in developing effective monitoring strategies, provides training in monitoring procedures and is responsible for collecting and reviewing data generated by volunteers with state purchased equipment. Data submitted by volunteer organizations is assessed for data quality and reported for upload into the DEQ’s water quality database, LASAR.

There are four main layers of available information resulting from the DEQ’s volunteer program: (1) groups that have worked with the DEQ to develop a monitoring plan or have received equipment to conduct monitoring; (2) groups that have submitted data to the DEQ for review; (3) data results that have been reviewed and reported for consideration in 303(d) list development; and (4) data that has successfully been uploaded and is being stored in LASAR. Due to inefficiencies in the program, each of these successive layers is a subgroup of the previous; therefore, of the 18 volunteer groups in the Coastal ESU, 13 have worked with the DEQ to develop a water monitoring plan, 12 have submitted data, andof these,10 groups have data that has been reported to LASAR.

The data submitted for 303(d) consideration consists of 195 LASAR stations within the coastal ESU with data collected between 1999 and 2003. These stations are represented in the figure. The timing and type of data for each station varies for each year. Continuous temperature recordings are the most common data type. Other data types include grab sample data for Escherichia coli, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, conductivity and temperature. A summary of the number of stations is presented in the table below.

Due to limited resources and unresolved issues with the upload and retrieval of volunteer data from the LASAR database this data was not analyzed for this report. This data was submitted for review during the development of the 2002 303(d) water quality limited streams list or the soon to be released 2004 list. When the quality of the volunteer data is of sufficient quality, the DEQ has used the data in development of TMDL’s as well.

Volunteer data is generated to answer specific questions generated by the volunteer organization. Generally, volunteer organizations use these relatively dense, targeted, local sampling designs to develop a baseline understanding of their watershed and to identify areas of the watershed for restoration and landowner outreach. The volunteer monitoring programs also serve as valuable education tools and help build participation in watershed groups. In addition to using the data internally, watershed councils share their information with local decision makers. For example,lake temperature data collected in the Siletz sub basin that has played a role in defining potentially valuable coho rearing habitat in an area under heavy pressure from development. Many groups partner with local privateor governmental land management organizations to help carry out their monitoring.

Specific questions about DEQ’s volunteer monitoring program should be directed to the volunteer monitoring specialist, Steve Hanson, at 503-229-5449, or

TABLE 1: Summary of volunteer monitoring
stations reported for 303(d) consideration.
Type of Data Reported / # of
Stations / % of Total
Stations
Continuous Temp. / 109 / 56 %
Grab Temperature / 91 / 47 %
Conductivity/Salinity / 91 / 47 %
pH / 76 / 39 %
Dissolved Oxygen / 76 / 39 %
Turbidity / 94 / 48 %
E. coli / 55 / 28 %