Selected Archives of Volunteer Monitoring Listserv Discussions

Uses of Volunteer Monitoring Data

Question 1: I am interested in examples of how volunteer monitoring data is being used by local and state agencies.

Question 2: How does your group make use of your data?

Question 1

Date: Tue, 08 Jun 2004 16:52:35 -0400
From: Jessica Thompson <jess_thompson@alumni.duke.edu>
Subject: [volmonitor] Questions regarding uses of volunteer monitoring

I am interested in examples of how volunteer monitoring data is being used by local and state agencies. Particulary for activities beyond public outreach, such as decision making, law enforcement, etc. If you have knowledge of an active or planned program using this sort of data, please respond with basic information, such as the following.

Are you using volunteer monitoring data for any purpose beyond citizen outreach and education? If so, what is it being used for? Do you think it would possible to use this data for implementation of the Clean Water Act, such as water body classification?

What are some details of the structure of the program, such as budget, amount of staff, sampling protocols used, training materials used, overall numbers of volunteers? What kind of data are the citizens collecting (basic field parameters, other water quality data, biological data)?

How long has the program been in existence? Do you have any specific success stories? Was there significant resistance to the program at the start, either within local and state agencies, or by the community?

Thanks very much for your help.

Jessica Thompson
jess_thompson@alumni.duke.edu
River Alliance of Wisconsin
www.wisconsinrivers.org

Question 1 Responses

Date: Tue, 08 Jun 2004 15:54:59 -0500
From: "Filbert, Jennifer" <Jennifer.Filbert@dnr.state.wi.us>
Subject: [volmonitor] RE: Questions regarding uses of volunteer monitoring

Hi Jessica,

To start you off regarding Wisconsin's Self-Help Citizen Lake Monitoring network,
visit our website at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/fhp/lakes/selfhelp/
You will find most of the answers to your questions there. When I have a chance, I'll respond to your other questions too.

Hope this helps,

- Jennifer Filbert
Wisconsin DNR

Date: Wed, 09 Jun 2004 12:56:44 -0400
From: URI Watershed Watch <uriww@etal.uri.edu>
Subject: [volmonitor] RE: Questions regarding uses of volunteer monitoring

Jessica:
For some good success stories of how volunteer data has been used beyond education and outreach I'd suggest checking out The Volunteer Monitor newsletter issue with that title (http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/summer02/volmon.pdf) Our program has a story
included in there, and we are fortunate that the URI Watershed Watch data enjoys a wide range of uses.

It is directly incorporated into the RI Department of Environmental Management's water quality database, and is used for waterbody classification through the State of RI Waters report (305B report) and to identify impaired waters (303 D list). Our volunteer generated data is sought by DEM personnel and consultants for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL),
environmental impact and other studies, including follow-up monitoring after the implementation of best management practices, etc. To our knowledge the data has not, nor would we want it to be used directly for law enforcement purposes. Rather the data has helped better target follow-up monitoring by enforcement agencies. The data has also been used to justify changes in local ordinances such as the development of special areas of protection, waste water ordinances, and prohibition of the feeding of waterfowl (which has now gone statewide)

This has been accomplished over more than a decade (program started in 1988) and with a lot of hard work by our staff (2 full-time employees, many students) and the many hundreds of volunteers that have participated - with approximately 300 currently active on more than 200 sites statewide. For more information about our program I invite you to check out our website (http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/ click on Watershed Watch). The site includes our monitoring manuals, as well as linkages to some of our partners. I'd also be happy to discuss our program to help answer the remainder of your questions.

To learn more about other similar programs I'd suggest checking out our website for the National Facilitation of Cooperative Extension Volunteer Monitoring - and especially the factsheet on Why Monitoring Makes Sense (http://www.uwex.edu/ces/csreesvolmon/).

Good luck,
Elizabeth Herron
URI Watershed Watch
Phone: 401-874-4552
Fax: 401-874-4561
Web: http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/

Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 08:07:32 -0400
From: Joan Martin <jmartin@HRWC.ORG>
Subject: RE:[volmonitor] How does your group make use of your data?

How do volunteer monitoring groups use their data? We have often heard
group leaders focusing on finding out how they can get the State or
other authority to "use" or accept their data, but that attitude seems
to us to omit the value that comes from making your own use of your
data.

We would be very interested in the methods that volunteer groups have of
using their data to protect their river or lake.

Question 2 Responses

Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 14:34:32 -0400
From: "Snyder, Cheryl" <chesnyder@state.pa.us>
Subject: RE: [volmonitor] How does your group make use of your data?
Joan and others,

I have responded to everyone since you all may find this information useful.

Data use and data users are probably the two most important topics that volunteer groups should address when setting up a monitoring program. I coordinate Pennsylvania DEP's Citizens' Volunteer Monitoring Program, and we strive to have groups monitor for their own reason and not necessarily to have DEP use the data. If the volunteers want to work with us to meet some of our needs, we will gladly do that. However, we stress the importance of developing a study design before actually monitoring so that the groups can determine why they are monitoring and what their goals are. Data use and data users should be addressed in the study design. This 10-step study design process addresses the who's, what's, when's, where's and why's of monitoring. The resulting study design (monitoring plan) can then be used to guide the group to meet their monitoring needs.

We have had a number of groups participate in some of our programs including our bacteria monitoring, watershed monitoring and lake monitoring programs and then move beyond the scope of our programs to pursue use of their data on their own. Other groups have attended study design workshops and then pursued data use on their own. Still others work with service providers to meet their needs. They all took the initiative to develop partnerships to reach their goals. Here are just a few examples of groups who took the next step and pursued data use on their own to protect water resources.

Watershed Associations have worked with their local municipalities to help monitor and protect local water resources including areas in the Poconos which is one of the fastest developing areas in Pennsylvania.

Two county Senior Environment Corps, developed in partnership with EASI, have pursued local data use. One partners with local watershed groups, the county conservation district and DEP to work on coal mining remediation projects. The second works with the City of Philadelphia by monitoring waterways for bacteria and helping the City pinpoint areas to check for leaking sanitary sewer lines that are contaminating the waterways.

A Watershed Association in southeastern Pennsylvania has worked in the Upper Chester Creek Partnership to monitor for bacteria. They have been instrumental in working with the local municipalities to investigate areas with high bacteria counts and to have local ordinances passed for dog waste pick-up in local parks.

A high school in southeastern Pennsylvania has taken part in our Watershed Snapshot event for seven years. This event is for education and awareness with the teacher keeping the data to check trends over the years. When a local Sportsmen's Association was looking for background data to show stream improvements in order to petition the Fish and Boat Commission to stock the stream with trout, the data supported the request. The stream was stocked for the first time in 20 years.

A number of monitoring groups have used their monitoring data to petition the DEP for stream upgrades.

A lake association took part in our monitoring program in 2004 and have been inspired to take the next step. They are going to work with a consultant to develop a lake management plan to better manage and protect their lake.

I hope these examples give you an idea as to how volunteer monitoring groups use their own data to pursue watershed restoration and protection.

Thanks!!!

Cheryl Snyder

..................................................................................................
Cheryl Snyder
DEP-Bureau of Watershed Management
Citizens' Volunteer Monitoring Program Coordinator
717-772-5640
chesnyder@state.pa.us

Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 18:03:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: F5creeks@aol.com
Subject: Re: [volmonitor] How does your group make use of your data?

Re how groups use volunteer monitoring data:

Various watershed groups on the east side of San Francisco Bay, including my
group, Friends of Five Creeks, have used E. coli data to get sewer mains and
laterals repaired. Our local US EPA Region 9 lab will do the lab work if
volunteers sample for five weeks running using their protocol. For Friends of Five
Creeks, the same tests have detected chloramines (toxic to fish) that have led
to repairs of major drinking-water leaks. But these can be harder to trace --
we have hit a blind alley with one big leak of chloramines.

Basic information obtained by monitoring is important in setting restoration
goals, e.g. is a particular creek cold enough for trout? are there obvious
problems such as turbidity, or absence of the expected species of aquatic
macroinvertebrates?

With help from Balance Hydrologics, a local firm, we recently began putting
live readouts of flow, temperature, and conductivity from one of our creeks on
line (link via www.fivecreeks.org). Early use of this automated datalogger led
to a change in the way our local utility handles water-main breaks. The
current graphs vividly illustrate the flash-flood-like nature of urban runoff
(although our rainy season is almost over). This sort of information can be useful
in advocacy. We also expect these data to be useful to students in a variety
of projects. Patterns anomalous spikes, of course, would indicate something
worth investigating.

Susan Schwartz
Friends of Five Creeks
Albany, Berkeley, Kensington, & El Cerrito, California

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