Every year, DEQ's Water Division makes available to the public its annual monitoring plan, which summarizes the water quality monitoring activities to be conducted that year. This information is presented in compliance with the Virginia Water Quality Monitoring, Information and Restoration Act to help ensure public awareness of water quality issues and conditions.

The plan contains detailed information on DEQ’s monitoring activities including the station locations, specific conditions, frequency of monitoring and costs. A station list identifies the location of each station and provides data helpful for mapping applications. An interactive map of stations is available. Clicking on an individual station icon returns a popup window listing the Station ID, location information, program for which the station was sited and the parameters to be measured.

The monitoring plan is used by DEQ to calculate estimates for laboratory analysis costs for the coming year and to evaluate the standardization of statewide monitoring efforts (e.g., site selection, parameter selection and frequency of sampling). It also provides a convenient source from which to extract descriptive summaries of specific regional and statewide programs based on station locations, parameters sampled, frequencies sampled and the total laboratory costs associated with each. A description of each of monitoring program included in the plan can be found on the Survey Program Codes sheet within the current Annual Water Quality Monitoring Plan.

DEQ water monitoring data and more information on this plan is available upon request.