Wet Watching
Water Quality Program Expands
Morgantown Dominion Post
23 December 2012
Submitted to The Dominion Post
By dipping four sample bottles into the icy waters where the
Monongahela and Allegheny rivers meet to form the Ohio River, a
delegation of scientists commemorated the expansion of an
award-winning water quality monitoring and reporting program that
tracks the health of the river that serves the needs of millions
of Americans.
The program — Quality Useful Environmental Study Teams (QUEST) —
is held at the West Virginia Water Research Institute at WVU. It
is funded by Pittsburgh’s Colcom Foundation.
The institute began the monitoring program on the Monongahela
River in 2009 after concerns arose over a high concentration of
total dissolved solids in the river that exceeded federal
standards for drinking water. The effort led to strategies
developed in conjunction with energy producing companies that have
since helped alleviate the problem. The program is being expanded
to include the Allegheny and upper Ohio river basins.
While in the field, technicians record data and collect water
samples that undergo a rigorous chemical analysis at a state
certified laboratory. In addition to the institute’s research,
local watershed organizations participate in the monitoring
program by collecting data from various locations in the headwater
streams of the river’s tributaries. The resulting data is
disseminated to the public on a website, so the millions who rely
on the rivers for their drinking water and other uses can get the
results.
QUEST’s success resulted in national recognition when it received
a Regional IMPACT Award by the National Institutes for Water
Resources. A $700,000 grant from Colcom to the Water Research
Institute quickly followed, which enabled the program to expand to
cover the two additional rivers.
This week, those three new partners joined WVU officials and
Colcom representatives at Point State Park to commemorate the
formal expansion of the project by taking the first official water
samples from the additional rivers; presentation of commemorative
checks for their new work; and celebrate a new name for the
overall project — 3 Rivers QUEST.
Project partners who will execute the water monitoring in the
expanded territories were chosen in a competitive process.
Wheeling Jesuit University, represented by Dr. Benjamin Stout, was
selected to monitor the water quality of the upper Ohio River
areas from Pittsburgh, downstream to near Parkersburg. Duquesne
University in Pittsburgh, represented by Drs. John Stolz, Brady
Porter, Elisabeth Dakine and Stanley Kabala, will monitor the
lower Allegheny River and its key tributaries.
The Iron Furnace Chapter of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited,
represented by Dr. Bruce Dickson, will monitor the upper portions
of the Allegheny River and its tributaries. All three
organizations were awarded $100,000 checks to move the program
forward.
Institute officials said the QUEST program is successful because
it provides the public, industry, agencies and organizations with
an easy to understand visualization of the health of the watershed
systems over a period of time on an accessible website where water
quality changes can be monitored and problem situations timely
addressed.
For more information about the QUEST program, http://visit 3rivers
quest.org.
The West Virginia Water Research Institute, based at WVU, has been
in existence since 1967 and serves as a statewide vehicle for
performing research related to water issues.