National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA)
Informing water-resource management and protection decisions
This document summarizes some of the key findings in the first decade
of studies by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA)
Program of the USGS. It includes examples of how decision makers and planners at
all levels--local, state, interstate, and national--use the
information to meet their critical data needs; to fill in gaps in data
for areas and resources they cannot assess; and to make decisions for
the protection of drinking water, the health of aquatic ecosystems,
and for resource management.
Full document (.3 mb PDF)
The NAWQA Program is the primary source for long-term, nationwide information on
water-quality conditions and ecosystem health. In more than 50 major
river basins and aquifers across the nation, USGS scientists collect
and assess information on water chemistry, hydrology, land use, stream
habitat, and aquatic life. Each NAWQA assessment adheres to a
nationally consistent study design and methods of sampling and
analysis, so that water-quality conditions in a specific locality or
watershed can be compared to those in other geographic regions. The
consistent study design and methods also allow
contaminants--pesticides, nutrients, industrial and
petroleum-based compounds, trace metals--and aquatic
ecology to be assessed on a comprehensive national basis.
These assessments help us understand how and why water quality
varies regionally and nationally.
Information from the NAWQA Program provides an
unbiased scientific basis for decision makers, managers,
and planners at all levels of government, as well as in
nongovernmental organizations, industry, academia, and
the public sector. This information is used to address and
prioritize the multitude of issues related to managing and
protecting our water resources.
