National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program
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Informing Decision Makers -- Linking Science to Water Management and Protection
Local, State, Tribal, and national stakeholders use NAWQA information to design and implement strategies for managing, protecting, and monitoring water resources in many different hydrologic and land-use settings across the Nation. For example, the information provides an unbiased basis to:
- Support development of regulations, standards, and guidelines for aquatic health and drinking water that reflect actual contaminant occurrence, including contaminant mixtures, breakdown products, seasonal patterns, and variability among different hydrologic settings
- Identify key sources of nonpoint pollution in agricultural and urban areas;
- Prioritize geographic areas, basins, and aquifers in which water resources and aquatic ecosystems are most vulnerable to contamination and where improved treatment or management can have the greatest benefits;
- Contribute to State assessments of beneficial uses and impaired waters (Total Maximum Daily Loads or TMDLS), strategies for source water protection and management, pesticide and nutrient management plans, and fish-consumption advisories; and,
- Sustain the health of aquatic ecosystems through improved stream protection and restoration management.
- Improve strategies and protocols for monitoring, sampling, and analysis of all hydrologic components, including the atmosphere, surface water, ground water and biological communities;
- Develop chemical and ecological indicators, such as of stream impairment, nutrient enrichment, and urbanization
Summary reports provide broad overviews of key findings and their implications for water-quality assessment and management at local, State, regional, and national scales. (Released periodically from 1994 to present)
USGS Health-Based Screening Levels provide a tool for evaluating what water-quality data may mean to human health
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
