We are continuing with our monthly water sampling at 6 sites in Mitchell and Yancey Counties. Unfortunately UNCA has closed the Environmental Quality Institute but the EQI lab should be back up and functioning in a few months. Until EQI begins testing again we will continue to use Environmental Testing Solutions for our monthly testing. ETS is much more expensive but we do not want to have a break in our sampling. When the EQI laboratory begins analyzing again, we anticipate that the cost for analysis may rise from $350.00 to $420.00 per site. However EQI plans to post the results on a website, so that the data will be available to the public for comparison to other sites in our area.

We also continue our biannual macroinvertebrate sampling, now with three sites: Cane Creek in Bakersville, North Toe at Penland, and Cane River at Mountain Heritage School. Training is available for volunteers for this program through the Stream Monitoring Information Exchange - http://sitemaker.umich.edu/smie/home. Please contact SMIE or Jim Carroll if you wish to participate. The SMIE sampling will also be on the new EQI web site. As soon as the site is up and running we will post the link here.

Bruce Greene in Yancey County (675-5984) and Jim Carroll in Mitchell County (688- 6102) are Muddy Water Watch volunteers, meaning that they have completed a 9-hour training program to identify violations of the state's sedimentation and erosion laws for sites undergoing development. We will work with land owners to protect their soil and their streams from bad land use practices so that streams can remain healthy. We really need more volunteers to become educated and active in community land use monitoring - Please call RiverLink In Asheville for information about upcoming training.