Water Quality Coordinating Committee

The Schenectady County Water Quality Coordinating Committee establishes policy for water quality protection, improvement, public participation/input, and education efforts in Schenectady County. An active committee has been formed including municipal and state agency personnel, conservation association members, and concerned citizens. This Committee is named the Schenectady County Water Quality Coordinating Committee (hereafter referred to as the "Committee"). Through the voluntary and cooperative efforts of these people, numerous projects and programs will be initiated to carry out the objectives outlined in this strategy.

Committee entities include local governmental and regulatory representatives, County, City, Municipal, Village, and DEC representatives.

The Committee

The Committee acts as an independent group. This structure allows the Committee to work independently of political ties or agendas, which may not be of common interest to the Committee's goals. The Schenectady County Soil and Water Conservation District is designated to lead this Committee and continues working to achieve an ongoing assessment and improvement program for surface water bodies and groundwater supplies. The District also handles financial matters including bookkeeping.

Regular Meetings
1st Thursday of the month
except for July & August

VIEW MEETING AGENDAS AND MINUTES

Committee Goals

To achieve these goals, the committee has established the following five objectives:

Recruit as necessary to maintain a committee membership that includes a balance of representatives from federal, state, county and municipal government agencies, educational institutions, private groups such as lake associations and conservation clubs, and non-affiliated individuals with knowledge and concern for water quality issues.

Promote public awareness and understanding of non-point source pollution through the use of educational tools such as brochures, workshops, videos, seminars, presentations, and displays. Target both young and adult audiences, developers, builders, and industrial businesses that may be impacting water quality. Promote public involvement by providing public forums to allow input, feedback on the identification of stormwater pollution issues and comment on possible approaches to reduce adverse impacts to Schenectady’s water resources.

Maintain a prioritized, dynamic list of water resources in the County that have water quality problems. The list should include, to the fullest extent possible, supporting documentation identifying the nature and history of each problem, its cause, potential solutions, and corrective measures implemented.

Utilize all potential funding sources from both the public and private sectors as a means of financing beneficial watershed plans, educational efforts, and implementation projects.

Promote and foster the remediation of identified non-point source water quality problems through the use of accepted Best Management Practices (BMP's) and water quality improvement projects.