Reference Materials

Resources for All Water Monitors

Coordination – (National Water Quality Monitoring Council – NWQMC) -- Provides a national forum for coordination of consistent and scientifically defensible methods and strategies to improve water quality monitoring, assessment and reporting. Promotes partnerships to foster collaboration, advance the science, and improve management within all elements of the water quality monitoring community. Sponsors national monitoring conferences - http://acwi.gov/monitoring/.  

NWQMC’s Methods and Data Comparability Board -- Identifies, examines, recommends, and fosters monitoring approaches that facilitate collaboration amongst all data-gathering organizations.  Offers numerous publications, e.g., Water Quality Data Elements User Guide, which covers the reasoning behind a common set of metadata and how to apply these metadata. Developed National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI)  http://acwi.gov/methods/.

Coordination – (Virginia Water Monitoring Council – VWMC) – Provides a statewide forum for coordination, collaboration, and communication among water monitoring programs throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. See our About page for more information.  To join the VWMC, contact the VWMC administrative assistant at vwmc@vt.edu. 

Guidance Documents - (Virginia Department of Environmental Quality) – Virginia DEQ maintains a collection of guidance documents for its various water programs. These documents represent the agency's current approach to or thinking on a particular subject. Includes information about: operator training, petroleum storage tanks, Total Maximum Daily Loads, water permits, water quality and biological monitoring and assessments, water quality standards and fish tissue programs, water supply, and watershed programs – http://www.deq.virginia.gov/waterguidance.  Includes guidance documents on water quality and biological monitoring and assessment: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/waterguidance/wqam.html.

Mailing List - (Virginia Water Monitoring Council – VWMC) – The VWMC provides water-related announcements to its members via e-mail messages on a regular basis.  See our Announcements page to view the current announcements.  To join the VWMC and our mailing list, contact the VWMC administrative assistant at vwmc@vt.edu.

Methods: National Environmental Methods Index - NEMI (NWQMC’s Methods and Data Comparability Board) – A free, searchable clearinghouse of methods and procedures for both regulatory and non-regulatory monitoring purposes for water, sediment, air and tissues.  Use NEMI to compare and contrast the performance and relative cost of analytical, test, and sampling methods for environmental monitoring – http://www.nemi.gov/.

Newsletters - (Virginia Water Monitoring Council – VWMC) – See our News & Events page for a list of newsletters and calendars available via the Internet.