Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory & Analysis Reports
A cooperative endeavor initiated in 1993 by the NPS Water Resources
Division (WRD) and the Servicewide Inventory and Monitoring Program,
the NPS Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and Analysis Project is
an effort designed to characterize baseline water quality at all units
of the National Park System containing significant natural resources.
The goal of this effort is to provide descriptive water quality information
to every national park unit in a format usable for park planning and
management. Specific objectives of the project are to: (1) retrieve
water quality and related data from the Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) STORET and other database systems; (2) develop a complete inventory
of all retrieved data; (3) produce descriptive statistics and appropriate
box and whiskers and time series plots of the water quality data to
characterize annual, seasonal, and period of record central tendencies
and trends; (4) compare park water quality data with relevant EPA national
water quality criteria on a station by station basis; and (5) reformat
the water quality and other related data for use with the park-based
Water Quality Data Management System (currently under development in
the WRD) and other appropriate analytical tools. Every park unit participating
in this project will receive a detailed analog report and several hydrographic
digital databases, including: (1) all water quality parameter data;
(2) 1:100,000 scale hydrography; (3) surface-water quality monitoring
station locations; (4) stream gage locations; (5) National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System permit locations; and (6) drinking water
intake locations. Additionally, each park will receive all the tables,
graphics, data, and text contained in the report in digital format on
disk.
Ensuring the integrity of park water quality, due to its importance
in sustaining natural, aquatic park ecosystems and supporting human
consumptive and recreational use is a fundamental component of the NPS's
mission. The purpose of this project is to inventory existing park water
quality data; establish baseline water quality at each park; identify
potential water quality problems; and establish a park water quality
database. The results of this effort are intended to enable park resource
managers and the WRD to compare and contrast water quality data collected
as part of ongoing inventory and monitoring programs with historical
water quality trends and to design better park-based water quality inventory
and monitoring programs in the future. One component of this project
is to demonstrate how the digital databases and analog report can be
utilized to determine where additional baseline water quality monitoring
is needed in a park due to spatial, temporal, parametric, or other limitations
of the existing data. The park water quality databases produced by this
effort will also lay the groundwork for allowing Regions and the WRD
to generate regional and national assessments of the status of park
water quality.
Completing the scope of work for all national park units with significant
natural resources (270 parks) should be done by 2007. Parks will be
completed in the priority order established by both the regional Water
Resources Program Managers and Inventory and Monitoring Coordinators,
as well as parks. As of January 2006, inventories were completed for
235 parks. The completed reports are available in Adobe format. You
while need the free Adobe
Acrobat reader to download these reports.
If you have any questions about these reports please contact Dean Tucker or Mike Matz.