Dear Members and Friends of the Volunteer Monitoring Community:

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is inviting all citizens’ groups, schools, private and government programs to participate in "WATER SNAPSHOT ’99" by collecting water quality data at their sampling stations at least once between April 16-25. As you can see from the enclosed materials, the procedure for Snapshot ’99 will be similar to Snapshot ’98 with the exception that we have added the option of a macroinvertebrate survey.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will continue to lead the Snapshot in the Delaware River Basin, and DEP will lead the effort in the remaining Pennsylvania basins. DRBC will do a basin-wide report for the Delaware River Basin and DEP will use the data collected from all remaining Pennsylvania basins in a Snapshot report. This will be distributed to all participants and made available on DEP’s website at (http://www.dep.state.pa.us) (choose: Subject/Water Management/Citizens’ Volunteer Monitoring).

Through your participation in Snapshot ’99, public awareness of water quality issues will increase and communication among monitoring groups will improve. In addition, this event affords the opportunity for your group to gain publicity for your own volunteer programs. We encourage you to use the Snapshot as a chance to publicize your program through local media events.

We ask that you spread the word about WATER SNAPSHOT ’99. Please copy this letter and the enclosed materials and share them with anyone who monitors water quality.

We would appreciate learning as soon as possible whether you will be participating in this effort. If you have not contacted us yet or have any questions, please contact Diane Wilson, DEP’s Citizens’ Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator at 717-787-5259.