Water summit flowing into town

By Aaron Lee

Published: August 7, 2008

A statewide water protection group is washing into Charlottesville for its annual summit this weekend.

Virginia Citizens for Water Quality is meeting Saturday for updates on watershed quality around the state, the role of volunteers who monitor water quality and increasing state funding for watershed monitoring, among other topics.

Robbi Savage is executive director of the Rivanna Conservation Society and said close to 100 people are signed up for the daylong summit, which is free and open to the public.

RCS has upwards of 700 volunteer members and is active with VCWQ.

“All you have to do is care about the environment and the water quality in our area,” Savage said of who qualifies to become a volunteer. “We can help with the rest.”

Savage said the need for more volunteers has grown because of state-funding cuts for professional monitoring.

The state’s 2008 fiscal year budget gave the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality $7.8 million to monitor water quality throughout the state. For FY 09, which began July 1, there is $7.4 million allocated.

But since summer 2001 the DEQ has raised the amount of money it gives to citizen groups that monitor water quality statewide from roughly $63,000 to the $108,000 it has budgeted as of summer 2008.