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| Bill Ward collecting samples from the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River |
Contents:
What are our goals and objectives?
We recently implemented a new program to facilitate the comparison of data collected by different monitoring groups, including counties, conservation districts, tribes, consultants, schools, and volunteer organizations, as well as state and federal agencies. If you want to come sample with us, you need only fill out a questionnaire, identify our nearest monitoring station, lookup when we will be sampling there, and come collect a sample. If you send in your data, we will post it to the internet (anonymously, if you like) along with everyone else's that was collected at the same station and day. We've produced a Focus Sheet to give you a quick overview; the program's web site is here: Side-by-Side Sampling Program.
The Washington State Department of Ecology conducts monthly water quality monitoring at hundreds of stream stations throughout the state and has done so for nearly 50 years.
Routinely measured indicators of water quality (and methods) are listed in the table, below. We occasionally sample other elements as well to meet special needs.
| ammonia (SM4500NH3H) | nitrate plus nitrite (SM4500NO3I) | phosphorus, total (SM4500PH) |
| conductivity (SM2510B) | nitrogen, total (SM4500NB) | suspended solids (SM2540D) |
| fecal coliform bacteria (SM9222D) | oxygen (SM4500OC) | temperature (thermistor) |
| flow (at most stations) | pH (EPA150.1) | turbidity (SM2130) |
| metals (bimonthly, at a few stations) (EPA200.8, 245.7) | phosphorus, soluble reactive (SM4500PG) |
In 2001 we implemented a program to collect stream and air temperature data at 30-minute intervals. We deploy recording instruments at 50 to 70 mostly long-term stations from June through September. We are also developing a program to collect continuous oxygen data at a few of these stations for a few weeks.
Our monitoring program is described in these documents:
Our goal is to provide timely and accurate water quality data to various clients within the Department of Ecology and elsewhere. These data are used for a variety of purposes which may be summarized in broad terms as the determination of status and trends in stream water quality statewide. Some specific objectives of the stream monitoring program are as follows:
Our Quality Assurance Monitoring Plan (QAMP) addresses quality control issues in detail; results are evaluated in our annual reports (see "Our Reports" below).
Although Ecology’s Freshwater Monitoring Unit works hard to keep the information and data in these web pages accurate, reliable, and timely, we provide no warranties, expressed or implied. The data may be changed without notice to correct unforeseen errors.
We recommend that users of our data review our quality assurance documents, related annual reports (especially the appendix covering historical changes), and consult with the station contact person to ensure that our data quality meets their needs. Quality control data can be provided on request. Historical data (especially data collected before October, 1988) may lack any associated field quality assurance. It is the data user's responsibility to familiarize themselves with these and other qualifications, and to use data from this site with all appropriate caution.
A brief overview of the index, detailed methodology, and a spreadsheet version that can be used to calculate index scores using your own data, are available through the links, below:
Results that exceed water quality criteria or the usual range of data are available as soon as we get the data from the laboratory (usually a month or two after samples are collected). The report is based on preliminary results that are subject to change without notice.
Most of the results we have collected over the years are now available online. WARNING: Data are considered provisional and subject to change without notice until our annual report is published. This can take as long as a year after the end of the water year. An explanation of our station numbering system is also available.
Four ways to get to the monitoring results
| Option 1. Search on a river or town name |
Option
4. Click on a state map 
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| Option 2.
Select from a state list Long-term and recent basin stations warning: large page, 200 kilobytes |
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| Option 3.
Select from a WRIA
list |
Data update schedule
| update type | schedule |
|---|---|
| Water Quality Index | Updated within three months of finalizing data. |
| results exceeding criteria | As soon as a full month's data are available from the lab. Generally about six weeks after sampling. (Based on preliminary data.) |
| finalized data | Data are not considered final until our annual report, which includes a quality control review, is published (or at least in final draft). This can be six to twelve months after the end of the water year. |
| preliminary data | As soon as a full month's data are available from the lab. Generally about six weeks after sampling. | continuous temperature data | Deployed instruments are generally collected by the end of October. Data are entered, reviewed, and usually available on the web by about March. |
We produce both routine and special reports. Our annual reports discuss the stream monitoring program in detail, including a quality control evaluation for the preceding year. We also perform water quality assessments based on our monitoring data. The "Condition of Freshwaters in Washington State" includes a generalized water quality assessment, a trend analysis, and a summary of water quality results by region. We occasionally conduct station- or region-specific assessments to address particular issues at a station or within a basin. A partial list of data analysis reports and monitoring program methodology documents are listed in the tables, below:
| Annual Reports by Water Year (October through September) |
| 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 |
| Special Topics in Annual Reports | report year |
| Station by station analysis, including trends, at Puget Sound long-term stations | 1991 |
| Began continuous temperature monitoring program | 2001 |
| Reports trend power and proposes a simple method to predict it | 2002 |
| Reports extra turbidity data collected at several Crab Creek and Tucannon River stations | 2003 |
| Reports extra turbidity data collected at several Palouse River basin stations; discusses total phosphorus in-line digestion method | 2004 |
| Compares temperature results from grab samples to 7-day average of daily maximums and develops predictive tool | 2006 |
| Reports experiment to test our oxygen holding times; reports trends in automated quality control checks | 2007 |
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If you have questions about a particular waterbody or monitoring station, you can contact one of the scientists below. (If you can't reach them, try Dave Hallock, 360-470-6681.) We try to respond to all requests within five working days.
| Central Washington | Eastern Washington | Northwest Washington | Southwest Washington and continuous temperature questions statewide | Ecology Regions |
| Chris Coffin | Dan Sherratt | Bruce Barbour | Bill Ward |
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| 509.454.4257 | 509.329.3420 | 360.715.5215 | 360.407.6621 | |
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Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
