The Question

I have several years of data from several drainage ways in the City of Arlington Texas. What does the data mean? How can I evaluate it? What is good water quality? Should I change my monitoring program to collect more or less data?

Where is a good guide to evaluating the data collected with a volunteer monitoring program? Evaluating the data in terms of is the water quality good or bad improving or declining etc.

Responses

Hello Robert:

I thought I would address a few of your questions regarding the drainage way data your have. Obviously without having the data itself all I can do is direct you to resources for helping you evaluate the information you have.

I’m sure you have already done this, but the first step would be to look at the water quality standards as identified by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/permitting/waterperm/wqstand/index.html#copies). These are generally in a narrative form, but do provide some numbers for dissolved oxygen for you to compare your data against. These standards will also help you to determine if your monitoring program is focusing on those parameters for which there are criteria, and if not, perhaps you can consider adding some of these parameters.

The best source for identifying water quality criteria on the federal level is USEPA (http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/). This site will give you access to criteria for a wide range of parameters including biological, chemical and microbiological. Also look for the Texas nutrient criteria information at (http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/permitting/waterperm/wqstand/ncdawg.html).

Three other sources for assessing volunteer generated stream data are the USEPA Volunteer Stream Monitoring Manual (available on-line at http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/), River Network’s Living Waters document (http://www.rivernetwork.org/lw/) and Washington (State) Dept of Ecology’s A Citizen's Guide to Understanding and Monitoring Lakes and Streams (http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/management/joysmanual/index.html).

In terms of your monitoring program – the biggest question is to ask what your goals are, and whether the program is meeting those? Our factsheet Designing Your Monitoring Strategy… (http://www.uwex.edu/ces/csreesvolmon/Outreach/DesigningYourStrategy.pdf) may help you to determine that, as well as direct you to other resources.

If you have any questions after reviewing these sources, I would recommend contacting the TNRC and/or water quality experts at Texas Cooperative Extension. Also we would be happy to take another stab at answering some specific questions about the data or your monitoring program. Good luck!

Elizabeth Herron

Program Coordinator

URI Watershed Watch

Phone: 401-874-4552

Fax: 401-874-4561

Web: http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/

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