October 11, 2007

The Department of Environmental Quality will be participating in the third annual Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) conference being held October 15-16, at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center in Higgins Lake. MiCorps is a network of volunteer monitoring programs in Michigan established by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm in 2003 to assist the DEQ in collecting and sharing water quality data. This is an excellent opportunity for volunteer water quality monitoring program leaders, citizen volunteers, and water resource professionals to exchange and gather information about volunteer monitoring.

This year, the conference will feature presentations from regional experts and provide training geared towards beginning and advanced volunteer monitors. The training will include fundraising, managing and using data, designing a monitoring strategy, outreach and collaboration, E. coli monitoring, and monitoring Michigan's lakes. In addition, representatives from MiCorps and the DEQ will discuss the role that volunteer monitoring data plays in supporting water quality protection efforts.

Peter Jackson, Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Midwest Region, will present the keynote address. He will provide a regional perspective on volunteer monitoring and talk about some of the issues facing volunteer monitoring programs, including program sustainability and volunteer retention.

Detailed information, including conference agenda, online registration, and contacts are located on the MiCorps Web site at http://www.MiCorps.net. For more information, contact the DEQ at 517 335-4195.

Editor's note: DEQ news releases are available on the department's Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

"Protecting Michigan's Environment, Ensuring Michigan's Future"

Revised October 11, 2007 by Pat Watson