2011 Citizen/Non-Agency Monitoring Activity Report
DEQ has released a new annual summary report, detailing the amount of citizen and other non-DEQ monitoring data received by the agency. An updated report will be prepared every December. This report, linked below, includes the following:
- Summary of monitoring data submitted to DEQ by citizen and other monitoring groups.
- Report on the Citizen Monitoring Grant and the latest list of awardees.
- Tally of monitoring coverage provided by citizen and other monitoring organizations.
- Citizen nominations requests received for the 2010 monitoring year.
- List of organizations registered on the DEQ Citizen/Non-Agency Monitoring Database.
- Community outreach events and training opportunities involving DEQ water quality monitoring staff.
2011 Citizen/Non-Agency Monitoring Activity Report 
Citizen Nomination of State Surface Waters for Inclusion in Annual Water Quality Monitoring Plan
During the 1997 legislative session, the General Assembly enacted the Water Quality Monitoring, Information, and Restoration Act (WQMIRA). WQMIRA directs DEQ to provide a procedure for citizens of the Commonwealth to nominate portions of lakes, streams, and rivers of Virginia for water quality monitoring by DEQ.
During the 2007 legislative session, the General Assembly changed the schedule for nominations. This was due to a change by DEQ from a state fiscal to a calendar monitoring year. Citizens can send their nominations to DEQ via the procedures described in the file below. Nominations received by April 30 of each year will be considered for inclusion beginning in January of the following year.
Citizen Monitoring and DEQ Water Quality Monitoring Stations
To learn more about the locations of the citizen monitoring sites identified by DEQ along with real time data collected at DEQ monitoring sites, click the 'Virginia DEQ Geographic Environmental Mapping System' link below. From this page, you can select the mapping application you wish to view. Both the 'What's in My Backyard' and the '2010 Impaired Waters' maps show the locations of monitoring stations used for the 2010 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment. There will be similar links for future assessments. For dial-up users, these pages may take a long time to load.
In partnership with the Virginia Water Monitoring Council (VWMC), DEQ is developing a GIS application to show where citizen groups, private industry, government agencies, and other organizations are monitoring for water quality. This website is operational and there will be regular updates to the site. By clicking the 'VWMC Community Monitoring Efforts in Virginia' link below, you can access a map displaying organizations that have registered on the VWMC website. Navigation on this map is very similar to the DEQ GIS application.
To learn more about the VWMC, please go to http://www.VirginiaWMC.org.