More than 880 people attended the Fifth National Monitoring Conference in San Jose, Calif. May 7 to 11, 2006. This year’s conference theme, Monitoring Networks: Connecting for Clean Water, highlighted the human, technological, and programmatic networks that connect those working for clean water.
The conference included 12 technical workshops and short courses, more than 350 professional papers and 135 posters. Forty-five organizations and vendors exhibited at the event.
The conference was the first professional discussion of the approach to and results of the U.S. EPA’s new Wadeable Streams Assessment released on May 5. It was also the forum for an extensive discussion of the proposed National Water Quality Monitoring Network For U.S. Coastal Waters and Their Tributaries. The US Geological Survey also used the conference to showcase the results of ten years of studies under its National Water Quality Assessment.
Special emphasis was given to current programs in pesticides, mercury and urban areas. These studies were presented amid discussions of the role of state water quality monitoring programs and the importance, credibility and role of volunteer water monitoring data and programs.
The conference was co-sponsored by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council, whose member organizations include EPA, USGS, USDA, NOAA and others; the North American Lake Management Society; the California Water Boards; and many other agencies.
Source: EPA
