Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program

The Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program is a partnership between the Department of Conservation, Department of Natural Resources, the Conservation Federation of Missouri and the citizens of Missouri.

Goals of the program include:

The volunteer program is flexible, offering different levels of involvement and commitment that build on each other. Volunteers are expected to share the knowledge they gain with their community, periodically monitor a stream and submit collected data in a timely manner. Volunteers begin by mapping their watershed, submitting a visual survey of their selected sites and submitting macroinvertebrate data. With further training volunteers can learn to collect for chemical and microbiological parameters. Water quality volunteers often work in conjunction with
Missouri Stream Teams.

Volunteer data will be used to inform and educate Missouri citizens, establish baseline data on rarely sampled streams, locate emerging water quality problems and identify long term trends in stream conditions. Highly trained volunteers will collect data that may supplement
agency-collected data.

Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Workshops
There are currently five levels of training available to volunteers: Introductory, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Cooperative Stream Investigations.

Cooperative Stream Investigations
The Department of Natural Resources Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program and the Missouri Stream Teams are in the process of implementing a new program called Cooperative Stream Investigations. The goal of this program is to foster cooperation between the department, watershed management committees and volunteers to perform sampling for special projects. The primary, but not only, focus of Cooperative Stream Investigations sampling will be E. coli.

Additional Workshop Information and Notebooks

Monitoring News and Notes

Stream Team Notebook from Missouri Resources

Other Stream Team Spotlights

Contact Information

Priscilla Stotts
Stream Team Coordinator
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
P.O. Box 176
Jefferson City, MO 65102
573-526-3406

Links of Interest

Storm Water Clearinghouse

319 Grant Information

Tire Dump Roundup Cleanup Program Continues - News Release 560, Dec. 3, 2007

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