The Department of Environmental Protection provided the General Assembly with an update on activities of the Senior Environment Corps and other citizen water quality monitoring programs in the Commonwealth.

Volunteer monitoring is an integral part of comprehensive statewide water protection. By monitoring water quality, volunteers empower themselves and their communities to become better water stewards.

More than 160 groups that include 11,000 individuals are involved statewide in monitoring activities. More than 3,000 sampling stations are utilized.

A well-designed volunteer monitoring program helps participants understand the power and limitations of scientific inquiry. Volunteer monitoring can also supplement professional monitoring in a variety of important ways:

· It can provide a screening mechanism to determine where further study is needed;

· It can assess the effectiveness of restoration efforts in watersheds;

· It may provide the only data available for a particular watershed, especially in remote areas; and

· It may help collect environmental data during unusual conditions such as rainfall events or more frequently than routine sampling carried out by resource agencies.

DEP has an ongoing program, the Citizens' Volunteer Monitoring Program, which provides support and technical assistance to volunteer monitoring efforts.

Involvement of individuals and organizations in monitoring water quality of streams, lakes, and rivers enables them to become active participants in watershed programs and activities. It can also create an informed constituency that understands the power and limitations of scientific information.

The CVMP and the Department of Aging worked with the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement to create the Pennsylvania Senior Environment Corps in 1997.

The PaSEC uses standardized protocols to assess physical, chemical, and biological indicators in streams. This data can be used as a screening tool to determine where further study is needed and the success or failure of restoration efforts. The data is housed in a database that includes an open component with fields for a limited number of parameters and can be utilized by other volunteer monitoring groups not following the PaSEC's standardized protocols.

According to DEP, the PaSEC program is cost effective in a number of ways.

As of June 2005, there were 2,253 volunteers actively participating in PaSEC activities around the Commonwealth. These volunteers conducted 4,772 monitoring events during the 2004-2005 fiscal year, representing a total of $343,584 in human resources dedicated to the assessment and protection of water resources in the Commonwealth.

However, the proposed 2006-07 state budget removed funding for the PaSEC because it was viewed as a legislative initiative.

For more information, download a copy of the 2004-2005 report from DEP, visit the Citizen Volunteer Monitoring Program and the Keystone Watershed Monitoring Network webpages.

Special Events: Pennsylvania Senior Environment Corps Chapters will be holding regional training roundtables in March, April and May. They will be held--

· Western Region I— March 28 and 29 covering: Crawford, Venango, Jefferson, Indiana, Allegheny, Butler/Mon River;

· Central Region II—April 18 and 19 covering: Clearfield, Centre, Mifflin-Juniata, Blair;

· Central Region III—May 2 and 3 covering: Capital, York, Lancaster, Adams, Schuylkill; and

· Eastern Region IV—May 9 and 10 covering: Luzerne-Wyoming, Monroe, Delaware, Philadelphia (CIP and SCEE), Montgomery.

3/17/2006