Funding Grant Continues 3 Rivers QUEST Water Quality Monitoring Program

Arden Bridge, Tygart Valley River

Colcom Foundation Grant Continues 3 Rivers QUEST Water Quality Monitoring Program

Email from Glenn Waldron, WVWRI, September 24, 2013

I’m happy to announce the West Virginia Water Research Institute recently received a $508,000 grant from the Colcom Foundation to continue the 3 Rivers QUEST water quality monitoring program. The 3 Rivers QUEST includes a network of research partners and watershed organizations throughout the Upper Ohio River Region.

In the Monongahela River Basin alone, there are 10 watershed groups actively participating through the 3RQ mini grants program, including: Friends of the Cheat, Friends of Deckers Creek, Save the Tygart Watershed Association, Guardians of the West Fork, Whiteday Creek Watershed Association, Harry Enstrom Chapter – Izaak Walton League of America, Friends of Blackwater, Youghiogheny River Watershed Association, Friends of Deep Creek Lake, Peters Creek Watershed Association

Here is the link to the official release:  Link to press release.

Regards, Glenn Waldron, West Virginia Water Research Institute, West Virginia University, 304-293-7085, glenn.Waldron@mail.wvu.edu

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Subject: Water Monitoring and Legislative Information

Email message from: Art & Pam Dodds. Date: September 20, 2013

Three Rivers QUEST (3RQ) is the water monitoring program managed by the WV Water Research Institute.  Their website is here.  The 3RQ is providing grant money to watershed groups to gather water quality data: pH, temperature, and conductivity.
 
Save the Tygart Watershed Association has received grant money toward this effort and is providing the monitoring instruments to citizen volunteers.  We are now active in this watershed group and will be monitoring at several locations which we will select downstream from Marcellus shale drilling operations.

I (Pam) have printed a map showing the locations of Marcellus shale drilling operations and I’m transferring these locations to the topographic maps on my Terrain Navigator computer software.  I am also identifying the drilling locations which are active in order to provide the most pertinent water sampling locations.

We hope that members on your listserve will be interested in volunteering their time to monitor stream locations.  If those interested could provide the general location where they live or would be interested in sampling (Rte. numbers and nearby intersections are all I need), I can provide the stream locations that would provide the best data pertaining to the drilling operations. We hope you can announce this to them; they can respond directly to us.

Also, we received information from the Choose Clean Water Coalition explaining two bills (H.R. 1175 and H.R. 2825) that Representative Matt Cartwright (Pennsylvania) has introduced to Congress to require regulations for Marcellus shale drilling. Both bills have many co-sponsors and we believe the bills should be supported by people interested in getting some regulations for Marcellus drilling.

Thank you very much, Pam and Art Dodds, pamelart@hughes.net

Tagged as: drilling, drinking water, fracking, marcellus shale, public health, toxic chemicals, water pollution