The first IOWATER workshop of this year was held this weekend at McFarland
Park.  A number of changes have taken place in the program that make it
much more volunteer-friendly.

Volunteers are no longer prohibited from talking to the media.  Part of the
training is actually geared toward handling media, including damage control
when you have been misrepresented.

The agreement you are asked to sign is a simple release of
liability.  Unlike last year, when the agreement included procedures you
were agreeing to implement before reporting, volunteers now have a copy of
the document they have been asked to sign.  On the back of the liability
agreement is a page about the ethics of stream monitoring.

IOWATER is still developing their website and intends to include official
as well as volunteer data for streams.  Eventually they will have their
information arranged by watershed, with the capability of telling where
waste water treatment facilities, etc, are located.

There are no minimum requirements for reporting, so you can do only a
chemical or biological assessment and will be able to enter your data on
their database.

To find out about workshop registration go to the IOWATER site
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/monitoring/vol.html

Peggy Murdock

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