Sound Science: Water Quality Monitoring

Posted March 16, 2009

By Carl Myers

Assistant Director, WEF Government Affairs

Recently joining the WEF staff a few years removed from my former EPA life, I was cheered by the new Administration’s focus on sound science, clearly stated by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson:

“Science must be the backbone for EPA programs. The public health and environmental laws that Congress has enacted depend on rigorous adherence to the best available science.”

A  critical component of applying sound science, the need to collect, analyze and wisely use good water data, including the robust ambient and related water quality monitoring efforts necessary to provide good data, cannot be overlooked. In these tough economic times, we must appreciate the array of monitoring efforts now underway at Federal, State and local levels and do whatever we can as water professionals to cooperatively support and improve all our monitoring efforts.

WEF has long supported the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program administered by USGS in cooperation with many others. NAWQA is a well-designed and implemented water quality monitoring program producing both national and State/local data and results helpful to informing water management decisions. WEF, in cooperation with USGS, has sponsored a continuing series of congressional briefings to make sure NAWQA findings are understood and discussed by national leaders. The next congressional briefing, which as always is open free to the public, will discuss new findings about the quality of our nation’s private drinking water wells. “The Quality of Our Nation’s Private Drinking Water Wells: Are Current Contaminant Levels Above Public Health Benchmarks?” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. in the Cannon Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. No RSVP is required for attendance.

Supporting water quality monitoring should include encouraging everyone, not just water professionals, to both understand and participate in water monitoring. WEF and the International Water Association in partnership with a wide range of sponsors have been helping local participants observe World Water Monitoring Day™ (WWMD). In 2008, more than 73,000 people worldwide visited their local streams, rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies to take basic water quality measurements in celebration of World Water Monitoring Day, marking a 60% increase in participation from 2007. WWMD is officially observed each year on Sept. 18. Beginning in 2009, participants will be able to monitor and report data to the WWMD database from March 22 (World Water Day) until Dec. 31. The goal is to engage 1 million people in monitoring their local waterways by 2012. For more information, see the World Water Monitoring Day 2008 Year in Review, available at www.WorldWaterMonitoringDay.org or by request at wwmd@wef.org.

NAWQA and WWMD are just two examples of how WEF is supporting and advancing water quality monitoring. It’s important that all water professionals work together to help develop the best possible monitoring data to support sound science even as we go full-speed-ahead on watershed management actions.

12/15/2009 Sound Science: Water Quality Monitoring  ()   Posted March 16, 2009 Recently joining the WEF staff a few years removed from my former EPA life, I was cheered by the new Administration’s focus on sound science, clearly stated by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: “Science must be the backbone for EPA programs. The public health and environmental laws that Congress has enacted depend on rigorous adherence to the best available science.” Comments (1) Just want to express how much I enjoy how data are well presented and up-to-date. And this particular post confirms the high degree of quality of your information. Posted by: Cleo Kerbs (Gillikin9@gmail.com) on 09/28/2011