The Department of Environmental Protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission announced on their websites they will no longer support volunteer water quality monitoring events that are part of the annual Watershed Snapshot.

The Watershed Snapshot program was started by the Delaware River Basin Commission and has operated for over ten years, traditionally for one week around Earth Day each year.

Both DEP and the Delaware River Basin Commission cited “other priorities,” lack of funding and a downward trend in participation in the program in their reasons for discontinuing the program.

Earlier this year DEP made a decision not to continue funding statewide for the Pennsylvania Senior Environment Corps which for 10 years involved over 2,900 seniors in providing water quality data to the department. Language directing DEP to fund the program out of its existing budget was not included in the 2007-08 budget.

Both the Snapshot and PA Senior Environment Corps programs were just mentioned by DEP in the 2008 Pennsylvania Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report as education and awareness outreach initiatives it undertakes.

Links: Coalition Proposes Pennsylvania Fair Share for Clean Water Funding Plan

PA Environment Digest Video Blog

Go To: PA Environment Digest Calendar Page

4/18/2008