GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1995

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1320

Short Title:  Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program. 	(Public)

─────────────────────────────────────── 
Sponsors: Senator Conder.

─────────────────────────────────────── 
Referred to:  Appropriations.

─────────────────────────────────────── 

May 27, 1996

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A CITIZEN WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND NATURAL RESOURCES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Article 21 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 143-215A.  Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program.
The Department shall establish a Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program to provide an avenue for individuals to play a role in and to take personal responsibility for protecting the State's water quality. The goals of the Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program are to coordinate monitoring activities among volunteers by river basins; to provide adequate training of volunteers and quality assurance of all data collected; to establish a comprehensive data collection system that supplements the State's data; to incorporate the data collected by volunteers into the State's overall management of water quality; and to provide access of the data to the public through a centralized database located in the Center for Marine Science and Technology."
Sec. 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Environmental Management, the sum of five hundred eighty-eight thousand dollars ($588,000) in recurring funds for the 1996-97 fiscal year for four positions and operating expenses to establish a coordinated Citizen Monitoring Program within the Department.
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1996.