2012 Annual Conference -- December 6, 2012

What Else is in your Water? From Arsenic to Zinc

Click here for the 2012 program.

Click here for a link to the 2012 Conference Summary.

The Maryland Water Monitoring Council held its 18th Annual Conference at the Maritime Institute, North Linthicum, Maryland, on Thursday, December 6, 2012. The theme of the one day conference was What Else is in your Water? From Arsenic to Zinc. The conference addressed water quality issues beyond more conventional pollutants such as nutrients and sediments. Registration began at 7:30 AM and the conference adjourned at 4:30 PM.

A morning plenary session included a talk by Dr. Cliff Mitchell of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. His talk was titled, Where do we Go from Here? Water Quality Monitoring, Public Health, and the Era of Constraints. A second plenary talk was provided by Bob Perciasepe, Deputy Administrator for the US EPA (title TBA). The annual Carl Weber Award ceremony was also included, as were six concurrent morning sessions with up to three talks each. A buffet luncheon and a poster session with about 25 posters occured at noon. Posters were on display throughout the day. The afternoon consisted of nine concurrent technical sessions with up to three talks each. Session topics included Mercury, Road Salt, Headwater Streams, Bacteria, Protecting Healthy Watersheds, Marcellus Shale, Harmful Algal Blooms, Environmental Information, Land Use Change, Groundwater, Fish Diseases, and Volunteer Monitoring. Click HERE for the agenda and links to Power Point presentations and posters.

The registration fee, which included a booklet of abstracts and lunch, was $70. To save money, the early-bird registration fee (postmarked before November 16, 2012) was $55. The early registration fee for presenters was $50. Discounts for full-time students were also available on a first come, first served basis by request.

***NEW IN 2012!***

Encouraging students to pursue careers in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] has become particularly important again as our country faces a shortage of scientists and engineers. While students have presented posters at past MWMC annual conferences, this year we extended a special invitation to high school and undergraduate students to present posters on their water-related research. An award of $50 was presented to the best student poster! Click HERE to see Scoring Criteria for Student Posters. For more information on this student poster session, contact Dr. Sonja Schmitz (sschmitz@ccbcmd.edu). Also, check out our 2012 student poster submissions and contest winners HERE.

Many thanks to our 2012 vendors and sponsors - Biohabitats, Chesapeake Bay Trust, EA Engineering, Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc., Hach Hydromet, Hartco Environmental, KCI Technologies, Inc., Microbac Laboratories, Rickly Hydrological Co., Sutron Corp., and YSI.

See www.mitags.org for directions to the Maritime Institute and follow this link for a classroom and parking lot map.

2011 Annual Conference -- December 1, 2011
Think Baywide, Act Streamside:
Implementing the Chesapeake Bay TMDL

The Maryland Water Monitoring Council held its 17th Annual Conference at the Maritime Institute, North Linthicum, on Thursday, December 1, 2011.
See www.mitags.org for directions to the Maritime Institute and follow this link for a classroom and parking lot map.

The theme of the one day conference was Think Baywide, Act Streamside: Implementing the Chesapeake Bay TMDL. A morning plenary session included plenary talks by Jeff Corbin, EPA’s Senior Advisor for the Chesapeake Bay and Carl Hershner, Director of the Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Five concurrent sessions with up to three talks each were held throughout the day. Session topics included The Federal Urban Waters Initiative, Environmental Justice in Water Issues, The Baltimore Reservoir Technical Workgroup, Volunteer Monitoring, The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan, Maryland’s NPDES Stormwater Program, Communication and Social Media, Ecological Flows, and a Special “How to” Session on Water Monitoring Techniques. Registration began at 7:30 AM and the Conference ran from 8:30 until 4:30.

Program for the 2011 Annual Conference available here.

A detailed agenda with PowerPoint slides of each presentation can be found here.