MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University is expanding its water quality-monitoring program.

Officials with the Morgantown school said the program that has studied the Monongahela River also will include the Ohio and Allegheny rivers.

The program was created in 2009 in response to growing concern over dissolved solids in the Monongahela River.

A $700,000 grant from the Pittsburgh-based private Colcom Foundation will allow for a geographic expansion of the program.

Wheeling Jesuit University will monitor the water quality of the upper Ohio River areas from Pittsburgh downstream to near Parkersburg. Duquesne University in Pittsburgh will monitor the lower Allegheny River and its key tributaries. A chapter of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited will monitor the upper portions of the Allegheny River and its tributaries.