MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A $700,000 grant is heading to West Virginia University's Water Research Institute to continue and expand a water quality monitoring program.

The university said the grant from the Colcom Foundation supports the reporting program known as QUEST (Quality Useful Environmental Study Teams).

While the program originally focused on the Monongahela River Basin, the Colcom grant will now also include the Allegheny and the upper Ohio River Basins.

The program began in July 2009 amid concerns over high concentrations of solids in the Monongahela River that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's secondary water standards.