Community-Based Water Monitoring and Decision Making /

This report presents national, supranational and subnational case studies from the United States of America, Australia, and the European Union to examine: (1) how community-based monitoring groups in these jurisdictions collect water quality data, (2) how governments have variously used CBM data in databases and decision making, and (3) how the availability and accessibility of CBM data affects ag [...] Australia: the National Water Quality Management Strategy adopted in 1992 continues to provide a powerful roadmap for local, state and national governments to coordinate the water quality and quantity monitoring necessary to design and implement comprehensive water and ecosystem management plans. [...] New York CBM Initiatives and Government Use of CBM Data Friends of the Bay is a volunteer group on Long Island that conducts water quality monitoring in Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor, and the surrounding watershed.22 Friends of the Bay developed their current Water Quality Monitoring Program in cooperation with the EPA, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, New York State Department of Env [...] If data were not collected at an existing monitoring station, a new station can be created by submitting geolocation data to the DEQ.33 Although the DEQ is in the process of reviewing and updating the 2009 QAPP, it currently reflects the DEQ’s past and present methods of processing CBM data.34 Prior to 2017, the DEQ added CBM data to their Laboratory Analytical Storage and Retrieval (LASAR) databa [...] The DEQ’s 2009 QAPP lays out the stages that data go through in order to be integrated into DEQ’s database.43 Figure 1 sets out instantaneous grab water data collection procedures and indicates who controls and has access to data throughout the process.44 CBM groups that collect the data are only directly involved at the initial stage: though they are able to retain copies of the data for their ow