Texas Water Monitoring Council

CHARTER

Establishment

The following Charter Members hereby establish the Texas Water Monitoring Council (TWMC) to facilitate cooperative state, federal and local water monitoring in Texas:

• The Texas Water Development Board
• The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
• The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
• The US Geological Survey
• The US Corps of Engineers (Galveston and Fort Worth)
• The US Environmental Protection Agency
• The US Fish and Wildlife Service
• The National Weather Service
• The Lower Colorado River Authority
• The Brazos River Authority
• The Sabine River Authority
• The Houston Galveston Area Council

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) agrees to facilitate the operation of the TWMC by providing administrative support including facilitating meetings, maintaining membership lists and contact information, and preparing agendas and notes, from meetings.

Purpose and Goals

The TWMC shall serve as a broad-based collaborative body to help achieve effective and efficient collection, interpretation, and dissemination of basic data and processed information for use in addressing issues, policies, and management of Texas waters. TWMC shall operate through consensus building among its members. The Council shall address the full range of water resources, physical, chemical, and biological, including ground and surface waters, in freshwater, and estuarine, environments.

The goals of the TWMC are to:

1. Raise public awareness of the value and use of water monitoring data.

2. Provide a forum for effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration among individuals and organizations involved in water monitoring in Texas.

3. Help serve the public’s need for water resources information through:

• Supporting the development and maintenance of optimal water data collection networks,
• Providing multiple outlets for disseminating water data including electronic networks,
• Developing standard data storage and exchange formats,
• Documenting water monitoring activities, and
• Developing collaborative regional watershed monitoring plans.

4. Promote the use of high quality standardized procedures for water data collection, performance-based analytical methods, assessment, data management, and reporting.

Membership and Officers

TWMC membership shall include all Charter Member organizations. Any additional organizations will be considered for membership upon receipt of a letter from their chief executive officer(s). All interested parties will be welcome to attend TWMC meetings as nonvoting members.

TWMC Chair:

Voting members of TWMC shall elect a chair of the Council to serve as Chair for two years.

Executive Secretary/Administrative Co-chair:

In addition to the representative to the Council named by the executive officer, the TWDB shall provide a staff person to serve the Council in the role of Executive Secretary/Administrative Co-chair. This individual shall be a voting member of the Council (in addition to the TWDB’s formal representative) and shall chair the council meeting in the event of the absence of the chair.

The TWMC may choose to establish such other officers as it deems necessary.

Organization

The TWMC shall establish such bylaws, procedures, and establish standing or ad hoc committees that it deems necessary to accomplish its purpose and goals. Participants in the committees shall be representatives of agencies, organizations, and groups with responsibility for, or participation in, water monitoring activities.

Activities

The Council shall periodically convene meetings and symposia for the purpose of achieving collaboration, communication and information exchange among those engaged in water monitoring activities.

The Council may issue documents and reports to further enhance communication and information exchange among those in the water monitoring community.

The full TWMC shall meet a minimum of four times a year. It is the intention to have the meeting places vary in order to promote broad-based participation.

The TWMC shall convene a biennial water resources monitoring conference (or Congress) to address statewide water resource monitoring needs in the fall of even numbered years and shall prepare a report on the overall status of water resource monitoring in Texas with recommendations for improvements. Fees for attending the conference shall pay for the publication of the report.

Texas Water Monitoring Council

http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/twmc/charter.htm
Page updated 5/10/1999
by Russell Pankratz
rpankrat@twdb.state.tx.us