Developing Procedures for Water Quality Reporting for National Parks

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Developing Procedures for Water Quality Reporting
for National Parks

• Adventures in Redeveloping
• Procedures for Water
• Quality Reporting
• in National Park Units

Dean Tucker and Michael Matz, National Park
Service Charles Spooner, Environmental Protection
Agency Dwane Young and Randy Dodd, RTI,
International Robert Deffenbaugh and Cindy McKay,
Horizon Systems
Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA
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• The National Park Service cares for 384 National
  Park Units in 49 states, the District of
  Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico the
  Virgin Islands.

Salem Maritime National Historic Site, MA
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• Places with faces

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, SD
Channel Islands National Park, CA
Yellowstone National Park, WY
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• and wide open spaces.

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• Places where you can walk the battlefield that
  changed the tide of the Civil War

Gettysburg National Military Park, PA
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• or learn about the man who made civil rights a
  reality.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, GA
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• Places that help us remember the pain

Andersonville National Historic Site, GA
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• the people

Lincoln Memorial, DC
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• and the places that forged the American
  character.

Fort Clatsop National Memorial, OR
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• Places that help us learn from ancient
  civilizations...

Mesa Verde National Park, CO
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• and get away from civilization altogether.

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
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• Places with inspiring stories...

Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island National
Monument, NY
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• and places that give us stories to tell.

Virgin Islands National Park, VI
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Jean LaFitteNational Historical Park and Preserve
The center is located at 419 Decatur Street in
the French Quarter.   The center is a site of
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and
Preserve, established in 1978 to help preserve
and interpret the cultural diversity of the
Mississippi Delta region.  Rangers at the French
Quarter Visitor Center can provide information
about other park sites, facilities, and programs.
Call [phone] for further information.  

• French Quarter
• Visitor Center

In New Orleans
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The Mission
The National Park System Caring for the American
Legacy "...to promote and regulate the use of
the...national parks...which purpose is to
conserve the scenery and the natural and historic
objects and the wild life therein and to provide
for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and
by such means as will leave them unimpaired for
the enjoyment of future generations." National
Park Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C.1.
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Water Resources of theNational Park System

• 137,400 miles of rivers streams

• 1,550 miles of CWA 303(d) impaired rivers
  streams

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Water Resources of theNational Park System

• 5,024,000 acres of lakes, reservoirs, estuaries
  and marine areas

• 742,260 acres of CWA 303(d) impaired lakes,
  reservoirs, estuaries, and marine areas

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110 Parks Contain CWA 303(d) Impaired Waters
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National Park Service Water Quality Management

• CWA governs WQ in the NPS
• Seek ONRW or OSRW status
• Condition NPDES permits
• Cooperate with external land managers
• Restoration and/or mitigation
• Evaluate existing data and collect new data

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National Park Service Water Quality Management

• Servicewide Inventory and Monitoring Program
• Water Quality Data
• Water Body Location and Classification
• Natural Resource Challenge Water Quality
  Vital Signs Networks

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Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and
Analysis Reports
Goal

• ...to provide descriptive water quality
  information
• in a format usable for resource management and
• park planning in furtherance of the NPS
  mission.

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Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and
Analysis Reports
Objectives

• To retrieve water quality and related data from
  the EPAs STORET and other data systems
• To develop a complete inventory of retrieved
  data
• To characterize period-of-record, annual, and
  seasonal central tendencies and trends with
  descriptive statistics and appropriate graphics

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Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and
Analysis Reports
Objectives

• To compare water quality data with relevant EPA
  and WRD screening criteria
• To determine the presence/absence of Level I
  water quality data and
• To establish a park (and national) water quality
  database
• To guide new monitoring efforts

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Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and
Analysis Reports
Status

• 234 Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and
  Analysis Reports at parks
• http//www.nature.nps.gov/water/horizon.htm
• Need to prepare reports for 40 more parks

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Redeveloping Report Procedures

• Modernized STORET

• Legacy STORET

• USGS NWIS

• Other Sources

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Problems/Issues/Editorials

• Limited to 30,000 results retrieved from
  modernized STORET Web Warehouse
• STORET Web Warehouse doesnt contain all the data
  in STORET

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Problems/Issues/Editorials

• NPS will run copies of National STORET and STORET
  Web Warehouse on its servers (also Legacy STORET)
• Periodic refreshes from EPA

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Retrieval Example for Grand Canyon National Park
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Problems/Issues/Editorials

• Characteristics vs. Parameter Codes
• Remark Codes
• Units of Measure

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Parameter Code/Characteristic Harmonization
Adopt Modernized STORETs normalized approach

1. Medium
2. Matrix
3. Fraction
4. Field/Lab
5. Unit of Measure
6. Temperature Basis
7. Duration Basis

1. Weight Basis
2. Statistic Type
3. Particle Basis
4. Additional Info
5. Method
6. Value Type
7. CAS Number

Additional Info isnt a field in Modernized
STORET
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Parameter Code/Characteristic Harmonization

• 424 Parameter Codes from Legacy STORET
• 524 Parameter Codes from NWIS
• Map to characteristic name or pseudo-characteristi
  c name and up to 14 attributes

P00605 NITROGEN, ORGANIC, TOTAL (MG/L AS N)
P00605 Organic nitrogen, water, unfiltered, milligrams per liter
Nitrogen organic (1275), Water, Total, Lab, mg/l
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Remark Code Harmonization

• Remark codes from Legacy STORET and NWIS mapped
  to appropriate report database fields

• Legacy STORET Remark Codes
• A Value is the mean of two or more
  determinations
• Set
• Value Type Calculated
• Statistic Type Mean

• NWIS Remark Codes
• lt Actual value is known to be less than the
  value shown
• Set
• Detection Limit the result value
• Result Value as Text Non-detect
• Result Value Null

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Units of Measure

• Legacy STORET and NWIS Parameter Code Units of
  Measure will be converted to the EPAs Standard
  Units for the characteristic.
• Standardized Units of Measure from all data
  sources will be converted to Preferred Units
  based on characteristic and medium.

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Characteristic Permutations (CP Codes)

• Result records will include 28 character CP Codes

Characteristc 1 to 6
Medium 7
Matrix 8 to 10
Sample Fraction 11 to 12
Field/Lab 13
Unit of Measure 14 to 16
Temperature Basis 17 to 18
Duration Basis 19 to 20
Weight Basis 21
Statistic Type 22 to 23
Particle Size 24 to 28
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Other Database Standardization Features

• Unique autogenerated Station IDs based on
  location
• Removal of duplicate data
• Data QC (erroneous values, etc.)

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Process Schematic to Generate an Integrated
Access Database
Define a Study Area
Query Web or Local Servers
Compile Data
Integrate/Harmonize Data, Remove Duplicates, QC
Create Integrated Access Database
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Generate Tables and Graphics, Compile Report
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Generate Tables and Graphics, Compile Report

• 20 complex tables in Microsoft Word
• Time Series, Seasonal and Annual Box Whisker
  Plots
• Hyperlinks
• Compiled together into one document, then
  converted to Adobe PDF.
• Invented new technology to make it work
• Broke down report into its individual components,
  with each component having properties

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Summary

• National Parks managed to leave resources
  unimpaired
• Water quality in at least 110 units of the
  National Park System is impaired
• Baseline Water Quality Reports
• Prelude to additional inventory monitoring
  activities
• Share documented data in an open system

Jean LaFitte National Historical Park and
Preserve Barataria Unit
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Contact InfoDean F. Tucker(970)-225-3516Dean
_Tucker_at_NPS.GOVMichael M. Matz(970)-225-3514Mi
ke_Matz_at_Partner.NPS.GOV