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Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network
SRBC will begin in early 2010 installing a monitoring network that will continuously measure and report water quality conditions of smaller rivers and streams located in northern tier Pennsylvania and southern tier New York. SRBC will receive the data collected by the network and will make it available to other resource agencies and the public through its web site. The data will help agency officials track existing water quality conditions and any changes in them on an ongoing, real-time basis.
SRBC will start with 30 water quality monitoring stations in the regions where drilling in the Marcellus shale is most active, as well as other locations where no drilling activities are planned so SRBC can collect control-data. The monitoring network will provide constant data collection with instruments sensitive enough to detect subtle changes in water quality on a frequency that will allow background conditions and any changes to them to be documented throughout the year.
| OBJECTIVES: |
- To establish a real-time monitoring network at areas of concern in the Susquehanna River Basin in order to provide monitoring data to resource agencies the regulated community and the public and monitoring to allow timely response in the case of pollution incidents;
- To establish baseline water quality conditions in targeted areas of the basin;
- To verify whether or not the natural gas well industry and/or other activities with the potential to cause pollution incidents are causing adverse impacts on local water quality;
- To reduce the cost of data collection through the utilization of advanced technologies; to form collaborative partnerships to improve monitoring technology and provide educational opportunities;
- To enhance protection for water supplies through source water monitoring; and
- To be responsive to public concerns.
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