Citizen water-quality monitors, college student interns, and community leadership: Benefits for stakeholders including scientists

Background/Question/Methods The Smith Mountain Lake Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program was initiated in 1987 and has functioned each year since. Smith Mountain Lake is a 25,000-acre pump-storage reservoir located in South Western Virginia. The program monitors the trophic status of Smith Mountain Lake. Citizen monitors take these water samples each summer and Ferrum College faculty and students chemically analyze the water samples each summer. The Claytor Lake Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program was initiated during the spring and summer of 1996. The purpose of this program is to monitor water quality in Claytor Lake, a 4500-acre mountain reservoir on the New River, located in Pulaski County, Virginia. This program is coordinated and samples analyzed also be Ferrum college faculty and students The sampling season for both of the citizen monitoring programs run roughly from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  The samples are picked up at the homes of the monitors by Ferrum College student and analyzed for total phosphorus and chlorophyll-A concentrations. One of two types of monitoring is carried out at each site; at "basic stations" water clarity is measured with a Secchi disk while, at "advanced stations", water clarity is measured and samples are collected for further analysis in the Water Quality Laboratory at Ferrum College.  In 2007 there were 84 stations in Smith Mountain Lake monitoring network (56 advanced stations and an additional 28 basic stations and 7 advanced monitoring stations in Claytor Lake.Results/Conclusions The collaboration among lake residents (Smith Mountain Lake Association and Friends of Claytor Lake), college scientists (Ferrum College), college students and government agencies (local counties and the Commonwealth of Virginia) has resulted in benefits to all stakeholders. The emphasis is not only trophic status and water quality data collection but also environmental education of the lake residents, certainly improving their lawn practices to more conservation based practices. Because of the citizen water quality monitoring on Smith Mountain Lake the Virginia Department of Health has funded a boat pump out service on the lake benefiting the residents.  The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has benefited by using the data collected in the state water quality report to the Environmental Protection Agency. Ferrum College faculty and students have benefited by having the opportunity to be involved in community activism in improving environmental quality of our lakes and by acquiring analytical equipment for their sciences labs.