Virginia Water Monitoring Council

2000 Annual Meeting

The first annual meeting of the Virginia Water Monitoring Council was held Tuesday, November 7, 2000 at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia. Approximately 70 representatives of water monitoring agencies and organizations attended. The meeting featured opening remarks by Dennis Treacy, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality; a keynote address by Elizabeth Fellows, Director of the Assessment and Watershed Protection Division in the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; several speakers and workshops; a business meeting; and closing thoughts by Robert Ward, a member of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. If you would like more information about the annual meeting, contact Jane Walker, VWMC Administrative Assistant, at or 540/231-4159.

Introduction

Ward Staubitz, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) District Chief and Chair of the VWMC Steering Committee, opened and led the VWMC annual meeting. Mr. Staubitz welcomed the attendees and speakers. He provided an overview of the history and objectives of the VWMC and its accomplishments since its inception last year. Mr. Staubitz noted the principal objective of the VWMC is to promote and facilitate the coordination of water monitoring activities in Virginia. He summarized that in the first year of the Council’s existence, it formed an active Steering Committee, developed Operating Guidelines, and initiated an inventory of the water monitoring activities in Virginia.

Opening Remarks

Dennis Treacy, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) provided opening remarks. Mr. Treacy mentioned that Virginia has seen many positive changes in recent years, including improved environmental quality and the increased desire of people wanting information about the environment. He explained that with the information age, the public has higher expectations of being able to access data. Mr. Treacy mentioned the addition of DEQ personnel to help coordinate citizen volunteer monitoring information and the collaborative work by the DEQ and USGS with their stream gage programs as examples of ongoing success stories of close coordination and collaboration of water monitoring activities in Virginia. Mr. Treacy reminded us that as water monitors, we are challenged to use the best technologies available to communicate information to each other and to make this information available to others.

Keynote Address

Elizabeth Fellows,[*] Director of the Assessment and Watershed Protection Division in the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the keynote address. Ms. Fellows was an original member of the Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring (ITFM), which was formed to evaluate the national water-quality monitoring activities and to develop recommendations for improvements. The ITFM was the predecessor of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council.

Ms. Fellows described the use of new technologies, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS), to help clarify and solve water quality and quantity issues. Ms. Fellows stressed that the formation of partnerships and collaborative efforts are critical to the success of the VWMC, even though they are not always easy to achieve. She reminded us not to ignore the monitoring of ground water, and stressed the importance of volunteer monitors. She explained that as a result of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) lawsuits, it is critical to have nationwide comparable scientific methodologies and that it important to be able to integrate data into systems such as STORET (“STOrage and RETrieval,” a repository for water quality, biological, and physical data). Ms. Fellows explained that the way to link science, management, and public views is to communicate. She concluded her address with the reminder that everyone is responsible for funding the protection of resources, and since the information needed about the environment relies on monitoring, funding for monitoring is essential. Ms. Fellows summarizes her talk with advice that the VWMC strive to achieve four C’s: “clarity in complexity, collaboration, comparability, and communication.”

Speakers

Karen Firehock with the Environmental Institute of Negotiations at the University of Virginia discussed the challenges and advantages of integrating citizen data into government monitoring programs. She provided reasons to integrate and utilize citizen collected data, and she refuted reasons for not engaging volunteer monitors. She reminded the audience that data collection is a tool useful in achieving a specific management objective and not the end goal. Click here for her notes.

Joseph Roggenbuck, a professor at Virginia Tech, provided suggestions for recruiting and retaining active water monitoring volunteers. Dr. Roggenbuck and a graduate student, Steve Haas, interviewed novice, veteran, and retiring volunteers of the Save Our Streams (SOS) program, and analyzed their responses to questions concerning their volunteering activities. Dr. Roggenbuck’s findings are expected to be available as a special report from the Virginia Water Resources Research Center (VWRRC) in early March of 2001. Contact Jane Walker for more information.

Business Meeting and Interactive Session

Two important outcomes of the VWMC business meeting and interactive session were 1) the election of three new Steering Committee members and 2) the addition of members to established committees and a work group.

Election of Steering Committee Members

Matt Bley of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and Committee Chair of the Elections Committee introduced the 2000 Steering Committee Members:

Dan Barker / Virginia Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies
Jane Cain / Virginia Water Well Association
David Frackelton / Virginia Agribusiness Council
Mark Prentice / Virginia Water Environment Association
Andrea Ryon / American Water Works Association
Bill Shanabruch / Citizens for Water Quality
Jud White / Virginia Manufacturers Association
Sam Austin / Virginia Department of Forestry
Matt Bley / Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
Ron Gregory / Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
John Kauffman / Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Michele Monti / Virginia Department of Health
Ward Staubitz, Chair / U.S. Geological Survey
Tony Watkinson / Virginia Marine Resources Commission
Gene Burreson/Lyle Varnell / Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Howard Kator / Water Quality Academic Advisory Committee
Tamim Younos / Virginia Water Resources Research Center

Chuck Kanetsky with Region 3, U.S. EPA was also recognized for his advisory role as a non-voting member of the VWMC Steering Committee, and Jane Walker with the VWRRC was acknowledged for her role as administrative assistant for the VWMC.

Matt Bley reminded the members that the VWMC Operating Guidelines call for a Steering Committee comprised of up to twenty members, with the goal of balanced representation among the government and non-government groups with a statewide presence. He announced there were three available positions on the VWMC Steering Committee. The Elections Committee nominated five candidates, and no nominations were submitted from the floor. The candidates were introduced:

· Alecia Daves-Johnson, Piedmont Soil and Water Conservation District

· Rochelle Garwood, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission

· Stacey Moulds, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay

· Kate Register, Clean Virginia Waterways

· Joan Salvati, Chesterfield County

Members voted for up to three candidates, and Len Shabman, Director of the VWRRC, announced the results of the new Steering Committee Members during the interactive session. The three Steering Committee members elected to began a four-year term that will end at the 2004 annual meeting include,

· Alecia M. Daves – Johnson, a Conservation Specialist representing the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts

· Stacey Moulds, Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator for The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, a regional non-profit organization that coordinates a citizen water quality monitoring program

· Kate Register, Executive Director of Clean Virginia Waterways (CVW), a statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the cleanliness and quality of Virginia's waterways by promoting citizen stewardship.

Committee Participation

The committees of the VWMC were described, and members were given the opportunity to join. Members interested in joining the following committees or the Membership Recruitment Work Group are asked to contact Jane Walker.

·  The Operations Committee is comprised of Steering Committee members that provide leadership for funding, strategic planning, Steering Committee nominations, and the annual meeting or conference. It encompasses a work group, which is open to all VWMC members and strives to recruit new members.

·  The Communications Committee works to create a mechanism for communicating the VWMC activities. It will develop a web-based newsletter and VWMC web page. This committee works closely with the Membership Recruitment Work Group. The committee particularly wants VWMC members who are web savvy and/or can write articles for the newsletter.

·  The Inventory Committee works to publish a comprehensive inventory of the sources of water monitoring data in the state and publish the contact names for these water monitoring efforts. As a second phase of the project, the committee plans to identify gaps in the data (geographical and data type gaps). Members interested in joining this committee are asked to identify their geographical expertise and the specific skills they could bring to the committee.

·  The Needs Assessment Committee works to understand the information needs and coordination requirements desired by the VWMC members. The committee will develop a questionnaire that meets these goals, survey the VWMC member organizations and individuals, and report the findings. These findings will be used to formulate and guide the future VWMC initiatives.

VWMC Workshops

The first two workshops began at 8:00 a.m. One workshop discussed the topic of “How to Start a Volunteer Water Monitoring Program” and was led by Kate Register and David Buckalew of Clean Virginia Waterways and Longwood College. The other morning workshop provided an “Overview of Water Quality Standards” and was lead by Jean Gregory with the Virginia DEQ along with Ifeyinwa Davis, Thomas Gardner, and Chuck Kanetsky of the U.S. EPA.

The afternoon workshops began at 2:00 p.m. Pixie Hamilton of the USGS and Ronald Klauda from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources described, “How to Communicate Water Monitoring Results People Can Understand.” Terri Brown of the Virginia DCR led a discussion on “Developing Groundwater Monitoring Protocols for Karst Aquifers.”

Feature Presentation

The VWMC 2000 Annual Meeting concluded with a presentation by Robert Ward, a Professor at Colorado State University and a member of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council, on the “The Science of Informing the Public about Water Quality Conditions.” Dr. Ward explained that data provided by monitoring programs are receiving increased attention in light of recent controversies such as the TMDL lawsuits. The public and their elected representatives need and desire accurate information so they can make informed management decisions. He speculated on a water quality information system that could be designed in an accountable, transparent, and scientifically sound manner. A draft copy of his presentation is available from Jane Walker, and a paper developed from this talk will be published in a book, Advances in Water Monitoring Research, during the fall of 2001.

[*] We are saddened that Ms. Fellows passed away several days after giving this keynote address. Her work and dedication at the EPA, her support of water monitoring councils, and her insight into ways to improve water monitoring are most appreciated. Her extraordinary efforts and leadership will be missed.