Inventories
Network Water Inventory
Water Quality Data
According to NPS-75, parks should have physical, chemical, and/or biological data for key park water bodies based on size, uniqueness, representativeness, and possible threats. Primary characteristics/parameters for which data are needed for key park water bodies include: alkalinity, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, rapid bioassessment baseline (EPA/state protocols involving fish and macroinvertebrates), temperature, and flow. Secondary data characteristics/parameters, where important on a case-by-case basis, include: toxic elements, clarity/turbidity, nitrate/nitrogen, phosphate/phosphorus, chlorophyll, sulfates, and bacteria.
To determine whether primary and secondary physical, chemical, and biological data have been collected in parks, the Service-wide Inventory and Monitoring Program and the Water Resources Division have partnered to prepare Baseline Water Quality Data Inventory and Analysis ("Horizon") Reports for parks. These reports inventory and describe available water quality data that exist in the Environmental Protection Agency's STORET (http://www.epa.gov/storet/) national water quality database and the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Information System (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis).
In advance of producing these reports, most parks were contacted to obtain water quality data collected by the parks, contractors, and/or cooperators and these data, as well as data found in historical published and unpublished documents, were uploaded to STORET so that they would be summarized in the Horizon Report. As a result, the NPS has established a significant water quality database/archive in STORET containing more than 2.5 million results from more than 17,000 sample locations in or near national park units. When a park's Horizon Report has revealed the park to be lacking data for the primary and/or secondary ("Level I") water quality characteristics/parameters for key water bodies, that park and/or Vital Signs Network have been eligible to submit a proposal and receive funding for conducting a Level I Inventory to alleviate the data gap.
Reports have been completed for 235 national park units. Adobe Acrobat versions of the reports for all completed parks can be downloaded at http://www.nature.nps.gov/water/horizon.htm. You can click on the following links to access reports for completed parks in the Klamath Network.
Oregon Caves National Monument
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area