3 Rivers QUEST program receives funding to continue monitoring

Allegheny River (Credit: Nyttend, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Colcom Foundation has awarded $508,000 to fund the 3 Rivers QUEST monitoring initiative, according to a release from West Virginia University. The money will go to help the program continue efforts to track water quality of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

Entering its second year, 3 Rivers QUEST has an increasingly important monitoring role as the rivers run through areas seeing a boom in shale gas drilling. In addition, program managers are tracking possible effects of national regulation changes for coal-fired power plants.

The Colcom Foundation is a private organization dedicated to conservation projects and provided critical funding to get the program off the ground in its first year. The West Virginia Water Research Institute, overseen by WVU, runs 3 Rivers QUEST.

Image:  Allegheny River (Credit: Nyttend, via Wikimedia Commons)