The Bureau of Water Quality (BWQ) was created in 1972 and is one of the oldest local water pollution testing and enforcement agencies in the United States. It was created under the leadership of John Craddock, now the Director Emeritus.
Eleven full-time professional staff members are dedicated to improving the water quality of the White River for the citizens of Muncie and East Central Indiana. The Bureau consists of four sections: Administration, Biology, Laboratory, and Surveillance.
These four sections implement cooperative industrial pretreatment programs as well as chemical and microbial analyses of treatment facilities and stream water. They also assess aquatic communities, and in doing so, continue to surpass the minimum legal requirements of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
This commitment has led to dramatic improvements in the water quality of the West Fork of White River in Delaware County, and has made the Muncie Sanitary District’s Bureau of Water Quality a model for municipal water quality management worldwide.
The Bureau of Water Quality invites you to bring your family and friends for a stroll along the White River. Fill a picnic basket, grab a fishing pole, bring your binoculars (there's abundant wildlife to observe), or put on your jogging shoes to enjoy this natural resource that our community is so fortunate to have.
Through a grant provided by the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, the BWQ designed a system whereby the public can readily access water quality information for the city of Muncie and Delaware County.
You are viewing the result: a retooled BWQ web presence, complete with interactive and static maps (displaying chemical and biological change over the four decades the Bureau has been in existence), a timeline of the West Fork White River, raw chemical and biological data for several White River sites, and several past annual reports.
Our goal in creating this area is to make available valuable information, useful to both the general public and professionals in the field.