A Water Quality Index for Ecology's Stream Monitoring Program is a new publication being offered by the State of Washington's Department of Ecology. A description of the work in part states that "the Water Quality Index is intended as a tool to summarize and report Ecology's Freshwater Monitoring Unit's routine stream monitoring data...determined for temperature, pH, fecal coliform bacteria,...

"This Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring National Facilitation Project is designed to build a comprehensive support system for Extension volunteer water quality monitoring efforts across the country." At this website, the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) provides in-depth documents about why and how to monitor water quality and how to increase monitoring...

The United Nations Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) Program "provides scientifically-sound data and information on the state and trends of global inland water quality required as a basis for the sustainable management of the world's freshwater to support global environmental assessments and decision- making processes." The website offers newsletters about water quality, downloads of...

From the Environmental Remote Sensing Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison comes the Lake Water Monitoring and Analysis with Satellite Remote Sensing Web site. Researchers and their cooperators have developed a method of assessing the water quality of Wisconsin's lakes from space using satellite imagery. Visitors to the site can read about how this is actually done, view an interactive...

The US Environmental Protection Agency has recently released a final regulation for Methods for Measuring the Acute Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving Waters to Freshwater. This involves the approval of several test procedures for measuring the toxicity of effluents and receiving waters, which are referred to as whole effluent toxicity or WET test methods. Visitors can download the entire 275...

This US Geological Survey Open-File Report (00-212) describes analytical techniques for benthic macroinvertebrates. Available in .pdf format, the 49-page report includes information on such analytical techniques as chemical equipment supplies, taxonomic identification, and more.

Provided by WebExhibits.org, the Why is Water Blue? (1) Web site starts off this Topic in Depth. Visitors will learn the factors that affect the colors we see, what color water actually is, and the basic physics and chemistry behind the phenomenon. This site is hard to beat for its clear explanations as well as its interesting photographs and illustrations. The second site, entitled the Common...

Based on material developed by the Save Our Streams program (Izaak Walton League of America), this educational resource on streams is provided by the University of Virginia at Charlotteville. The Stream Study homepage is an online guide for determining the water quality of streams, based on collecting and identifying stream-bottom macroinvertebrates (e.g., crayfish, mussels, and larvae of aquatic...

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has recently released this online information sheet about testing methods for acid mine drainage areas. An overview, discussion of stream discharge measurements in mountainous areas, tracer and synoptic sampling methods, conclusions and a bibliography are provided. The text, which comes from the USGS Water Resources Program, is accompanied by a few diagrams and...

Since its inception in 1991, the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program has been collecting and analyzing data about more than 50 major river basins and aquifers across the United States. The core mission is "to develop long-term consistent and comparable information on streams, ground water, and aquatic ecosystems to support sound management and policy decisions." Visitors can...