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Methods Board Report. National Water Quality Monitoring Council July 28, 2005. Methods Board Report. Board Emphasis on Network Design – Discussed Previously Focus in This Report on Water Quality Data Elements
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Methods Board Report National Water Quality Monitoring Council July 28, 2005
Methods Board Report • Board Emphasis on Network Design – Discussed Previously • Focus in This Report on Water Quality Data Elements • Biological Data Elements and WQDE Guide to be Presented to ACWI for Approval in September • NEMI • Wadeable Streams Assessment (WSA) Update • Outreach -- Newsletter Distributed • Board Has Not Met Since Last Council Meeting – next meeting scheduled for mid-October 2005
What are the Water Quality Data Elements? • Information about data that answer basic questions to facilitate data exchange: • Who? (Which organizations are responsible?) • What?(What was monitored & found?) • Where?(Where was the monitoring done?) • When?(When was the monitoring done?) • Why?(Why was the monitoring conducted?) • How?(How was the sampling/ testing done?)
Objective: • To develop and recommend a “core” set of data elements to be used to structure the sharing and archiving of water quality data • Voluntarily implemented • Allow data to be compared regardless of, but recognizing the purpose of, the monitoring activity
Data Element Modules 1 - Contacts 2 - Analyte / Endpoint Result 3 - Reason for Sampling 4 - Date/Time of Sampling 5 - Location 6 - Sample Collection Methods 7 - Sample Analysis Methods & QA/QC
Metadata Who What Where When Why (“The objective of the study was…”) How (Methods) Data Collection Data Processing Data Analysis QA/QC Derived Data Metric values LC50’s Index scores Biocriteria “Anything that requires math” Data Components • Primary Data • Samples/Events • Locational Info • Organisms/ Analytes • Counts/Measure-ments
Status of Data Elements • Chemical and microbiological elements approved by ACWI on May 15, 2001 and being implemented / considered by several agencies • Biological elements (individuals/ populations/community) approved by the Methods Board (2003) and NWQMC (2004); in review by ACWI • Toxicity elements approved by the Methods Board (2003) and NWQMC (2004); in review by ACWI • WQDE Guide approved by the Methods Board and Council 2004 • Physical habitat elements – under development
Status of Data Elements (continued) • Chem/micro data elements approved and adopted by the Environmental Data Standards Council • Biological data elements recommended by US EPA for the Wadeable Streams Assessment • Adapted by the Pacific NW Data Exchange, Delaware River Basin Commission, and the California State Water Resources Control Board
WQDE Next StepsACWI Meeting – September 14 • Early August • Distribute biological elements once again to ACWI • Distribute WQDE Guide to ACWI • Include cover letter • Late August • Conference Call to discuss with ACWI members • September 1 • ACWI approval request by E-mail for Biological Data Elements and publication of WQDE Guide. Also letter to member agencies requesting use of WQDE in monitoring programs
NEMI • NEMI (Dan Sullivan, Cary Jackson) • Vision statement completed • ES&T paper appeared as a feature article on 4/15 • Funding Proposal submitted to Green Chemistry Institute • CRADA development moving forward. • Partners being shopped through advertisement and one on one discussions. Hach management committed $20K per year for 3 years. • Addition of biological and other methods ongoing • Field Activities Committee. Fraceska Wilde playing major role. Methods fields being assessed and methods being added • NEMI-CBR and expert system peer review completed. Public release late summer (subject to additional reviews)
Methods Board Advisory Group on Bioassessment Comparability • Board Advisory Group formed with first meeting on March 8, 2005 • Projects: • Analysis of Wadeable Stream Assessment Comparability Study data (March 05 – Dec 06) • Critical Review of the State-of-the-Science of Bioassessment Comparability (May – Aug 05) • EPA Guidance on Bioassessment Comparability (March 05 – June 07) • National Workshop on Bioassessment Comparability at the NWQM Conference(Nov 06) • New Bioassessment Comparability Studies (Oct 05 – June 07)
Outreach • Outreach (Eric Vowinkel, Acting) • Next edition of Across the Board being distributed – Eric prepared initial draft • Participated in EPA Science Forum • Session on Collaboration and Comparability in Water Quality Monitoring Programs – Papers presented on NMND, WAS, WQDE, NEMI • Poster On Monitoring Framework • Poster on NEMI-CBR