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The National Water-Quality Assessment Program-Update on ecological aspects

Conference Proceedings
By M.E. Gurtz

Abstract

The goals of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) are to describe the status and trends in the quality of the Nation's water resources and to provide improved understanding of the primary natural and human factors affecting these resources. At full implementation the program will consist of 60 combined ground- and surface-water study units, delimited by major river basin or aquifer system boundaries. One-third of the study units will be in a three-year phase of intensive data collection and analysis at any one time. Ecological surveys will be conducted as part of the NAWQA program to integrate the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of water quality in surface-water systems. Ecological surveys will include the examination of aquatic communities (primarily fish and invertebrates) and habitats at sites ranging from mainstem stations to low-order tributaries. Study sites and sampling reaches in each basin will be selected following reconnaissance sampling and habitat surveys. Ecological surveys will be coordinated with other NAWQA components, including tissue analyses, special problem-oriented biological studies, and the physical and chemical water-quality surveys. Pilot studies for the biological components of NAWQA are in progress along the Yakima River in Washington and the upper Illinois River in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. A decision on proceeding to full implementation will be made in 1990. Project planning and analysis of existing data for the first 20 study units will be completed in fiscal years (FY) 1991 and 1992 along with some reconnaissance sampling. This will be followed by the three-year intensive data-collection period beginning in FY 1993. NAWQA will provide many opportunities for collaborative research and comparisons of stream ecosystem properties locally and nationally across widely varying geographic regions.