More than fifty Waterwatch community volunteers from across the North Central Victoria region participated in the annual Victorian Waterwatch Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QAQC) program last week.   The program provides an opportunity for Waterwatch volunteers to review and improve their monitoring techniques.

Waterwatch Victoria’s QAQC Week program is an annual event coordinated at a state-wide level.  The National Association of Testing prepares mystery samples for testing by Waterwatch monitors to ensure that their equipment and monitoring techniques are accurate, and that the data collected from sampling is reliable.  Samples are tested for the water quality parameters of Electrical Conductivity, pH, turbidity and reactive phosphorus.

Damian Wells, North Central CMA Chief Executive Officer is delighted with the participation of volunteers, “QAQC week is important for our North Central Waterwatch program and ensures that the data collected by our Waterwatch volunteers is dependable and can be used in river health planning and decision making.”

According to Regional Waterwatch Coordinator, Bianca Huider, 90% of North Central CMA Waterwatch volunteers passed the test in 2008.  “We are thrilled with the results and the high standards achieved by our volunteers.

“It’s not only community monitors that are put to the test in QAQC week.” Bianca explains, “All North Central Waterwatch staff are also involved in testing the mystery samples and the ability for the community monitors to test accurately is a reflection on the training and support given by the Waterwatch team throughout the year.

Waterwatch Victoria is a state-wide community based water quality monitoring program that aims to increase local community understanding and ownership of waterway and catchment issues. Community volunteers and North Central Waterwatch staff are involved in the monitoring of waterway health including water quality and macroinvertebrate indicators.

For more information on Waterwatch Victoria’s Data Confidence Framework, guidelines and data confidence plans, visit www.vic.waterwatch.org.au.   If you would like further information on the North Central CMA Waterwatch program contact North Central CMA Regional Waterwatch coordinator, Bianca Joanne Huider on 5448 1829.

For further information please contact: 

Communications Officer, North Central CMA
PO Box 18, Huntly VIC 3551
t: 03 5448 7124
e: info@nccma.vic.gov.au