2019 Virginia Citizens for Water Quality Summit

Geoff, Connie and Charlotte with DIY monitoring equipment

The 2019 Virginia Citizens for Water Quality Summit (VCWQ) was held October 19, at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA. BRFAL was represented by Save our Stream (SOS) monitors Connie Hylton, Geoff Orth and Charlotte Hubbard. Carolyn Thomas and Bob Polad also attended as it related to their work monitoring water quality in Smith Mountain and Philpott Lakes.

Morning presentations included advances in monitoring equipment, the value of citizen science to Virginia DEQ, details on a couple of successful Chesapeake Bay Watershed initiatives and how to diversify funding for water quality work.

I was impressed to learn that the Save Our Streams program is 100 % grant funded! James Beckley of the Virginia DEQ was an active presenter during the morning and presented two of the afternoon concurrent sessions: “Updated Virginia Bacteria Criteria” and “DIY Monitoring Equipment.” There were multiple contributors from the Izaak Walton League who added a great deal of information and professional perspective. 

Check out the whole agenda and the presentation PowerPoints on the VCWQ Meetings page https://vcwq.wordpress.com/meetings/.