Wadeable Streams Assessment Discussed At Fifth National Monitoring Conference
More than 880 people attended the Fifth National Monitoring Conference in San Jose, Calif., on May 7-11. This year?s conference theme, Monitoring Networks: Connecting for Clean Water, highlighted the human, technological, and programmatic networks that connect all of us working for clean water. The conference included twelve technical workshops and short courses, over 350 professional papers and 135 posters. Forty-five organizations and vendors exhibited there.
The conference was the first professional discussion of the approach to and results of EPA's new Wadeable Streams Assessment released on May 5 (for information on this report see: http://www.epa.gov/owow/streamsurvey). It was also the forum for an extensive discussion of the proposed National Water Quality Monitoring Network For U.S. Coastal Waters and Their Tributaries. The US Geological Survey also used the conference to showcase the results of ten years of studies under its National Water Quality Assessment. Special emphasis was given to current programs in pesticides, mercury and urban areas. These studies were presented amid discussions of the role of state water quality monitoring programs and the importance, credibility, and role of volunteer water monitoring data and programs. For more information on the conference, visit: www.tetratech-ffx.com/nwqmc06.
This article originally appeared in the 05/01/2006 issue of Environmental Protection.