1. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Ambient Water Quality Monitoring Program Neil Kamman, Environmental Scientist VI VT Dept. of Env. Conservation – Water Quality Division

2. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Water Quality Monitoring in Vermont  VTANR Structure  The VT Water Quality Standards  VT’s Water Quality Monitoring Program Strategy  Program Design and Highlights

3. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 VT ANR Structure VT Agency of Natural Resources Dept. of Environmental Conservation Dept. Forests, Parks and Rec. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

4. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 VTANR DEC Overall WQ ambient monitoring and assessment program FPR Swim beach bacterial monitoring F+W Monitoring to support specific F+W needs

5. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 VTDEC WQD WSD State Geologist Other Divisions Lakes/ponds, rivers, wetlands Groundwater Wastewater and stormwater compliance

6. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Reorganization of VTANR   Groundbreaking restructuring of ANR functions   Opportunity for integrated coordination of the VT water quality monitoring program across multiple centers

7. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Vermont Water Quality Standards  Administered by the VT Water Resources Panel  VTANR provides technical services to the Panel in the derivation and implementation of WQS  Panel holds legal authority to establish and modify WQS and classifications  VTANR carries out assessment, listing, and TMDL functions using WQS  VT Env. Court adjudicates legal issues regarding application of WQS

8. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Vermont Water Quality Standards  Collection of numeric and narrative standards  Tiered Aquatic Life Use gradient is written into the classification system of VWQS Examples from VTWQS Class specificity Narrative standards Numeric criteria NutrientsYYY DOYYY TurbidityYYY ToxicsNN*Y Biotic integrityYYY * Standard “no toxics in toxic amounts” language does apply

9. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Status of biocriteria in VT Program support  Resource ↓ Legal needs (listing, permitting, etc.) “Assessment” needs (weight-of-evidence w/in listing and assessment process) Under develop- ment Wadeable streams XX Lakes XX Non-wadeable rivers X Wetlands x

10. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 VT Water Quality Monitoring Program Strategy  Follows EPA “10 Elements” guidance  Issued for period 2005-2015  Provides architecture for monitoring, assessment, listing, and data archiving activities  Articulates monitoring designs to meet two major goals:

11. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 VT WQ Mon. Program Strategy Goal 1: Predict and monitor the condition of Vermont’s aquatic and wetland resources to:  identify emerging problems;  provide information essential to protecting, maintaining and/or restoring the integrity and use of these resources;  achieve comprehensive monitoring coverage of all Vermont waters;  identify water quality conditions, impairments, causes, and sources; and,  evaluate the success of current policies and programs.

12. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 VT WQ Mon. Program Strategy Goal 2: Communicate, collaborate and coordinate with organizations, agencies, and the general public to:  increase public knowledge of and involvement in water resource monitoring  promote efficient and effective monitoring and assessment programs; and  collect useful data to supplement state monitoring and assessment programs.

13. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Program highlights  Split-design incorporating targeted and probability-based approaches  Balanced resource allocation to lakes and rivers assessment that retains flexibility  Standardized methods (field and laboratory)  Development of monitoring systems for wetlands  Focus on partnerships with other organizations  Program is very thin on automated obs. systems  Total resource commitment: 13FTE within VTDEC, not including temporary technician services

14. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Rivers and streams:  Ambient biomonitoring program Active since <1980 >1,400 sites within network Annual target of ~150 sites using standard protocols  Rotating Basin Assessment Five-year cycle of probability-based sites Initially implemented in conjunction with the Nat’l Wadeable Streams Assessment Provides an assessment of statewide stream biological attainment, with confidence estimates  Stream Geomorphic Assessment Program Major initiative to understand physical stream processes Hundreds of reaches characterized since 2003 Geomorphic assessment is now a pre-requisite to receipt of CWA 319 remediation funds from VT

15. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Lakes and ponds:  Spring Nutrient and Lake Assessment Programs >100 lakes assessed annually >700 stations within network  Lake Champlain Long-term Monitoring Program Major monitoring initiative aimed at supporting Vermont’s “Clean and Clear Water Action Program”  REMAP Mercury Survey (1998) and National Lake Survey (on-going) 50-lake probability surveys Provide an assessment of statewide lake conditions and use attainment with confidence

16. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Wetlands and groundwater:  Development of methods for wetlands biological assessment  General groundwater monitoring for support of community drinking water systems (DEC-Water Supply Division)  Monitoring of radionuclides, arsenic, and groundwater quantity in support of non- community drinking water use

17. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Volunteer-based monitoring:  Vermont Lay Lakes Monitoring Program 1977 to present >80 lakes / Lake Champlain stations monitored for nutrients and chlorophyll-a by citizens (longest-term volunteers have given 25+ years of service)  LaRosa Environmental Partnerships 2003 to present Competitive program to provide laboratory services to watershed organizations 29 groups supported since 2003, 18 active in 2007 Generated >29,000 records of QA’d data from >250 sites statewide

18. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Important partnerships  VTANR – LaRosa Environmental Laboratory  US Geological Survey  USEPA Region 1, OWOW, and ORD  University of VT  VT State Colleges  Numerous lake and watershed associations  Schools

19. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Data management  Data management systems include in-house sequel or MSAccess-based repositories, and a non-node link to Storet (WQX by our existing node in evaluation presently)  Current database in excess of 700,000 records of physical, biological, or chemical datapoints  Some web-based reporting available (lakes)  VTANR initiative underway to modernize data archiving within a new Enterprise system  VTANR initiative to develop automated field  office data streams using remote computing

20. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 There is much, much more:  Assessment and listing processes  TMDL development and implementation  Gov. Douglas’ Clean and Clear Initiative  Monitoring within the remediation context  Hazardous sites monitoring/characterizations WWW.VTWATERQUALITY.ORG WWW.VERMONT.GOV/CLEANANDCLEAR VT has a flexible program to adapt to new issues…

21. National Water Quality Monitoring Council - Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2007 Our newest issue: