Water Quality in the Puget Sound Basin


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The NAWQA program is designed to take a long-term view of water-quality issues, and the study unit assessments are therefore designed as long-term multiphase water-quality investigations. The first phase of the Puget Sound Basun study unit assessment is designed to be carried out over a 10-year period during which time water-quality issues will be identified and prioritized, existing water-quality data will be accumulated, and evaluated, surface- and ground-water quality data will be collected, and associated aquatic ecological surveys will be conducted. Data analyses and report writing will be completed in 1999-2000 at which time the assessment will shift into a low-intensity data-collection phase, the purpose of which is to track long-term trends and identify emerging water-quality issues before beginning a second high-intensity phase in the year 2004.

1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Initial Planning	Analysis of existing data	Intensive data collection and analysis	Intensive data collection and analysis	Intensive data collection and analysis
1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Completion of primary reports	Completion of primary reports	Low-level assessment activities	Low-level assessment activities	Low-level assessment activities
2004	2005	2006	2007
Analysis of existing data	Intensive data collection and analysis	Intensive data collection and analysis	Intensive data collection and analysis

WHAT IS NAWQA?

The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to assess the quantity and quality of the earth resources of the Nation and to provide information that will assist resource managers and policy makers at Federal, State, and local levels in making sound decisions. Assessment of water-quality conditions and trends is an important part of this overall mission.

One of the greatest challenges faced by water-resource scientists is acquiring reliable information that will guide the use and protection of the Nation's water resources. That challenge is being addressed by Federal, State, interstate, and local water-resource agencies and by many academic institutions. These organizations are collecting water-quality data for a host of purposes that include: compliance with permits and water-supply standards; development of remediation plans for specific contamination problems; operational decisions on industrial, wastewater, or water-supply facilities; and research on factors that affect water quality. An additional need for water-quality information is to provide a basis on which regional and national-level policy decisions can be based. Wise decisions must be based on sound information. As a society we need to know whether certain types of water-quality problems are isolated or ubiquitous, whether there are significant differences in conditions among regions, whether the conditions are changing over time, and why these conditions change from place to place and over time. The information can be used to help determine the efficacy of existing water-quality policies and to help analysts determine the need for and likely consequences of new policies.

To address these needs, the Congress appropriated funds in 1986 for the USGS to begin a pilot program in seven project areas to develop and refine the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. In 1991, the USGS began full implementation of the program. The NAWQA Program builds upon an existing base of water-quality studies of the USGS, as well as those of other Federal, State, and local agencies. The objectives of the NAWQA Program are to:

Describe current water-quality conditions for a large part of the Nation's freshwater streams, rivers, and aquifers.
Describe how water quality is changing over time.
Improve understanding of the primary natural and human factors that affect water-quality conditions.

This information will help support the development and evaluation of management, regulatory, and monitoring decisions by other Federal, State, and local agencies to protect, use, and enhance water resources.

The goals of the NAWQA Program are being achieved through ongoing and proposed investigations of 60 of the Nation's most important river basins and aquifer systems, which are referred to as study units (See Figure 1). These study units are distributed throughout the Nation and cover a diversity of hydrogeologic settings. More than two-thirds of the Nation's freshwater use occurs within the 50 study units and more than two-thirds of the people served by public water-supply systems live within their boundaries.

National synthesis of data analysis, based on aggregation of comparable information obtained from the study units, is a major component of the program. This effort focuses on selected water-quality topics using nationally consistent information. Comparative studies will explain differences and similarities in observed water-quality conditions among study areas and will identify changes and trends and their causes. The first topics addressed by the national synthesis are pesticides, nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and aquatic biology. Discussions on these and other water-quality topics will be published in periodic summaries of the quality of the Nation's ground and surface water as the information becomes available.

This report is an element of the comprehensive body of information developed as part of the NAWQA Program. The program depends heavily on the advice, cooperation, and information from many Federal, State, interstate, Tribal, and local agencies and the public. The assistance and suggestions of all are greatly appreciated.

Robert M. Hirsch
Chief Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey