This Week's Updates:

• North Country Harmful Algal Bloom Summit
• Environmental Information Data Integrity Webinar
• 2017 WAVE Sampling Data Posted Online
• Fix a Leak Week

North Country Harmful Algal Bloom Summit

The third regional Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Summit will be held on March 20 in Ticonderoga. The summit includes an evening session open to the public from 6:00 – 8:00 at the Best Western Ticonderoga, 260 Burgoyne Road, Ticonderoga, NY 12883. Background information about HABs will be provided, including talks by experts, a panel discussion and an opportunity for local residents to share recommendations and ideas. The session can also be viewed online via Livestream.

Environmental Information Data Integrity Webinar

DEC will host a webinar on Environmental Information Data Integrity on March 26 from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. Data integrity is fundamental to any water monitoring project so that the data can be used with confidence.

This webinar will focus on two critical elements that support data integrity: quality assurance and the NYS Department of Health (DOH) Environmental Laboratory Approval Program (ELAP).

Topics to be covered include:

• An overview of ELAP
• The process to become an ELAP certified lab
• The steps to maintaining ELAP accreditation
• The components of the planning, implementation and evaluation process that will safeguard data quality (called the “Quality System”)
• What you need to know about Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPP) to ensure that your project objectives will be met

To view the webinar, visit the above link at the webinar start time. Pre-registration is not required.

2017 WAVE Sampling Data Posted Online

Data from the Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators (WAVE) 2017 sampling season is now available online in an interactive Google map. The map also includes data collected since 2012. In addition to DEC's use of the data to update the Waterbody Inventory/Priority Waterbodies List, many volunteer groups use WAVE data to highlight and preserve valuable local resources and to improve impaired streams.

WAVE volunteers collect macroinvertebrates to assess water quality in wadeable streams in New York State. A call for 2018 volunteers and information on new online training modules will be announced in a future MakingWaves.

Fix a Leak Week

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) WaterSense program is sponsoring Fix a Leak Week March 19 – 25 to highlight the problem of wasted water in homes across the country. As a WaterSense partner, DEC is promoting Fix a Leak Week in New York State. We encourage you to improve the water efficiency of your home by finding and fixing leaks. More than 1 trillion gallons of water are wasted in U.S. homes each year from easy-to-fix leaks. That is more than 10,000 gallons per year for the average home. Visit DEC’s Saving Water Makes Good Sense webpage for tips on how to save water in your home.

View Division of Water updates from the last 30 days.