USGS--National Water Quality Monitoring Day 2005: Virginia (Events)

		State-wide Events

James Basin

Virginia Water Monitoring Day on the James River
Date: October 14, 2005
Rain Date: October 18, 2005

Tentative Schedule:
            9:30 -10:00     Arrival of School Groups & Introductions
          10:00 -12:00     School Groups perform monitoring and explore exhibits
          12:00 -12:30     Lunch

Location: Water Front, Robious Landing Park, Chesterfield County, Virginia
http://www.chesterfield.gov/HumanServices/ParksandRecreation/parksites.asp

Activities: (1) Nature Walk, (2) Chemical Water Monitoring, (3) Aquatic Entomology, (4) Fish Electroshocking, (5) Watershed Simulation & Soil Erosion Demonstrations and BayScaping Techniques.

Contact: Dana Roberts
Education Coordinator
Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Districts (VASWCD)
7308 Hanover Green Drive, Suite 100
Mechanicsville, VA 23111
Phone: (804) 559-0324 (office)
FAX:      (804) 559-0325
Email: dana.roberts@vaswcd.org
http://www.vaswcd.org

Flyer: Virginia Water Monitoring Day: Activities on the James River p1 & Virginia Water Monitoring Day: Activities on the James River p2 (PDF files.)

(Download Adobe PDF Reader here)

Big Sandy Basin

Chowan Basin

New River Basin

Sept. 19-23 Virginia Tech students will make in-class visits to local K-12 schools to teach classes how to test for dO, T, pH and turbidity on water samples from the New River and tributaries. In-field GLOBE measures of those parameters will be shared with students. Teachers please contact llyn@vt.edu to schedule a classroom visit.

Oct. 1, Saturday, 9:30-1:30 Save Our Streams certification and training session on a New River tributary. We will also collect WWMD and GLOBE data. Preregister with llyn@vt.edu.

Oct. 15, Saturday Watershed walks and assessments on Stroubles Creek and Toms Creek.

Stroubles Creek: 11:00-3:00, meet at the Lancaster House for a field day looking at Stroubles Creek and Blacksburg's freshwater heritage. This is a YMCA Open University program with Mike Rosenzweig of SEEDS. Please contact the Y to pre-register or register online at https://secure.bnt.com/ymca/registrationform.html.

Toms Creek: 10:00-11:30 Community members meet at the Meadowbrook Road parking area to walk along the stream and do water quality assessments to become part of the WWMD database. This program will be led by members of the VT Soil and Water Conservation Society and Save Our Streams volunteers. Pre-register with japeters@vt.edu.

For additional Information, Contact:

Llyn Sharp
Virginia Tech Science Outreach
Department of Geosciences
5070C Derring Hall
VT Mail Code 0420
Blacksburg, VA 24061

phone 540-231-4080
fax 540-231-3386

llyn@vt.edu
http://www.geol.vt.edu

Potomac Basin

Rappahannock Basin

Roanoke Basin

Roanoke Valley Water Monitoring Week, September 25-30, 2005

Middle and High School teachers and their students in the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County are invited to participate in water monitoring week by monitoring a stream near a school and collecting water quality data.

To participate, obtain a free water monitoring kit that tests for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity by contacting Carol Davit with the Western Virginia Water Authority at 853-1315. The kits are provided by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. A data collecting sheet will be included along with the kit.

Staff and volunteers from the following organizations are available on a first-come, first-served basis to assist teachers and students with data collection: Virginia Save Our Streams, the Upper Roanoke River Roundtable, the Western Virginia Water Authority, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia's Explore Park, Roanoke County, the City of Roanoke and the Town of Vinton.

Teachers who would like assistance should contact Carol Davit at 853-1315.
Data collected will be on display at the Fall Waterways Celebration and Clean-Up in the City of Roanoke's Wasena Park on Saturday, October 1, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Contact Information:
Carol Davit
Environmental Communications Coordinator
Western Virginia Water Authority
www.westernvawater.org
540-853-1315

On Oct 1, The City of Roanoke and Clean Valley Council are hosting the "Fall Waterways Clean-up & Celebration"

Volunteers will be removing trash and debris from areas along the Roanoke River and its tributaries. A celebration sponsored by Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op, Upper Roanoke River Roundtable and Explore Park will be held at Wasena Park for the volunteers and public from 12 noon - 2pm. There will be lots of food, live music and fun.

Contact Information:
Rachel Parson
Environmental Education Coordinator
Virginia's Explore Park
P.O. Box 8508
Roanoke, VA 24014
540.427.1800 ext 336
rparson@explorepark.org

Roanoke Valley Water Monitoring Week flyer (PDF file)

(Download Adobe PDF Reader here)

Shenandoah Basin

The Friends of Blacks Run Greenway has 4 members helping with "Plant A Seed" training. This will be from September 19-21, 2005 on two local watersheds that join the Shenandoah River. This is focused on all 6th graders in public schools in Harrisonburg. Each student will have a full day experience with water testing, benthic tests, and riparian buffers.

For more details contact:

Kelly McDaniel
Potomac Conservancy
Shenandoah Resource Center
10 South Loudoun Street
Winchester, VA 22601
(540) 667-3606
(540) 667-7748 fax
mcdaniel@potomac.org

Tara Sieber
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Valley Regional Office
P.O.Box 3000
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
(540) 574-7870
tlsieber@deq.virginia.gov

John Reeves
Friends of Blacks Run Greenway
(540) 437-0050
jbr1948@adelphia.net
info@blacksrungreenway.org